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THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

VOLUME V.

Commencing January 1832, and ending February \, 1833.

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR THE LONDON SOCIETY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
THROUGHOUT THE BRITISH DOMINIONS.

SOLD BY J. HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY J BY J. ANC A. AHCH, CORNIlII.Lj

AND AT THE DEp6t FOR ANTI-SLAVERY PUBLICATIONS,

15, PATERNOSTER ROW.

M.DCCCXXXIII.

J IH, 7 H c?

W ,#=*'^^&;-''V:-"V£' k-

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CONTENTS.

No. P*B«- '

XCII.~1832, January. I. New Slave Code : Order in Council of No-
vember 2, 1831 : — 1. Protectors of Slaves ; 2. Sunday markets
and labour ; 3. Driving-whip ; 4. Arbitrary punishment ; 5.
Illegal or cruel punishment ; 6. Malicious complaints; 7. Re-
cords of punishment; 8. Marriage; 9. Rights of property;
10. Separation of families ; 11. Manumission; 12. Presump-
tions of slavery ; 13. Evidence; 14. Food; 15. Duration of
labour ; 16. Clothing, &c. ; 17. Religious worship ; 18. Medi-
cal aid ; 19. Miscellaneous rules ; Conclusion . . . 1 — 37

II. Instructions of Viscount Goderich to Governors of Colonies . 37 — 53

III. Recent Intelligence from Jamaica ..... 53—56

IV. Cape of Good Hope ; Free labour 56

XCIU.— February. T. New Slave Code of Jamaica .... 57—76

II. Further illustrations of the effect of slavery on morals and
m.aQners in Jamaica, drawn from the periodical press of that
island 76—80

XCIV. — March 10. A calm and authentic review of the causes, the
commencement, and the progress to a certain period, of the
insurrection which is reported recently to have taken place
among the slaves in the Colony of Jamaica . . . . 81 — 112

XCV. — April 28. I. Parliamentary proceedings ; — Debate on the sugar

duties 113—134

II. Recent Intelligence from Jamaica : — Persecution of the mis-
sionaries ; Treatment of Henry Williams .... 134 — 133

III. Committee of Inquiry on West India affairs in the House of

Lords 135—136

IV. Mr. Buxton's motion in the House of Commons . . . 136

V. The Anti-Slavery Record ib.

VI. General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society ... ib.
XCVI. — May. I. Proceedings of a General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery

Society and its friends, held at Exeter Hall, on Saturday, the
12th of May, 1832. Speeches of Mr. Stephen, Lord Suffield, Mr.
Buxton, M. P.,' Rev. J.W.Cunningham, Dr. Lushington, M.P.,

CONTENTS.

Ko. Page.

Mr. Smith, Mr. O'Connell, M. P., Rev. J. Burnett, Mr. Evans,

M. P., Hon. and Rev. B. Noel, Mr. Pownall, &c. James

Stephen, Esq., in the chair 137 — 176

II. Debate on Mr. Buxton's motion in the House of Commons . 176

XC VII. — June. Report of a Committee of the House of Commons on the
causes and remedy of West India distress, with the evidence
taken. — Paper of the I3th April, 1832, No. 381, containing 350
pages 177—204

XCVIII. — July. Communications between the Colonial Secretary of
State and the Colonies; viz., 1. Constitution of Trinidad; 2.
Liberation of forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves; 3. Persecu-
tion of Samuel Swiney, a Jamaica Slave ; 4. Female Flogging in
Jamaica; 5. Female Flogging, &c., in the Bahamas j 6. Slave In-
surrection j 7. Report of the Bishop of Jamaica; 8. Free Black
and Coloured Classes, changes in their civil condition ; 9. The
Protection given to Slaves in Jamaica by law illustrated . . 205 — 228

XCIX. — August 1. I. Recent Intelligence from the West Indies. — 1.
Resolutions of Black Freeholders of Kingston, Jamaica; 2. Ad-
dress of Free Black and Coloured Inhabitants of Trinidad ; 3.
Address of Free Black and Coloured Inhabitants of the Baha-
mas ; 4. Report of the House of Assembly of Jamaica on the late
Rebellion ; with the Protests of the Baptist and Wesleyan Me-
thodist Missionaries ; 5. Speech of Mr. Watkis in the Jamaica
Assembly ; 6. Farther Persecutions in Jamaica ; 7. Appointment
of Delegates to Great Britain by Jamaica Assembly ; 8, Trial of
the Editor of the Jamaica Watchman for a capital Felony . 229 — 242

II. Rebellion in Jamaica 242 — 248

C. — September 1. A detailed View by Mr. Buxton, M. P., of the Progress

of Population among the Slaves in the several Slave Colonies of
Great Britain, since the first institution of the system of Regis-
tration ; with Observations thereon 249 — 264

CI. — October 1. I. The Christian Record of Jamaica, No. 3, of March,
1832. — 1. Mis-statements of Mr. Alex. Barclay; 2. Free Labour •
Sugar in Jamaica ; 3. Instruction of Slaves ; 4. Kirk of Scotland .
in Jamaica ; 5. Parochial Schools in Jamaica .... 265 — 274
JI. Religious Persecutions in Jamaica 274 — 283

III. Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich to the Governors

of Slave Colonies 283—291

IV. Resolutions of the Anti-Slavery Committee on the present

state of the Slavery Question 292

CII. — November 1. — I. Conduct of Emancipated Africans in Antigua . 293 — 296

II. American Colonization Society 296 — 300

CHI. — November 15. Con-espondence between SirC.B. Codrington and

T.F. Buxton, Esq., on the subject of Slavery .... 301 — 312

CONTENTS.

Iso.

CIV.

Page

December 31. — Analysis of the Report of a Committee of the

House of Commons on the Extinction of Slavery ; with Notes

by the Editor, viz.

Report of the Committee ,

313

List of Witnesses

315

Evidence of W, Taylor, Esq.

319—341

,, Rev. J. Barry

341—352

,, Rev. P. Duncan ......

352—365

Rev. T.Cooper

365

„ Mr. Henry Loving

367

Rev. J. Thorp

370

Rev. W. S.Austin

372—378

Vice-Admiral the Hon. Charles Fleming-

378—390

„ Robert Sutherland, Esq

390

Rev. N.Paul ......

ib.

„ Rev. T. Morgan

391

Rev. W. Knibb

392—405

Captain C. H. Williams, R. N. .

406—410

W. A. Hankey, Esq

411^

J. P. Ogden, Esq

414

,, Robert Scott, Esq. .....

417—422

,, James Simpson, Esq. ....

. 422—429

„ William Mier, Esq

430

„ Rev. J. Shipman .....

ib.

,, Rev. R. Young

ib.

William Shand, Esq. ....

. 431—436.

,, Bryan Adams, Esq.

436

„ Mr. John Ford Pike

437

,, William Watson, Esq. ....

ib.

H. T. Bowen, Esq. .....

438

,, R. G. Amyot, Esq

ib.

„ Samuel Baker, Esq

ib.

,, A. G. Dignum, Esq. . . . ; .

440

„ Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Rowley

442

J. B. Wildman, Esq. .....

. 444—460

Rev. J. T. Barrett, D. D. .

460

,, William Burge, Esq.

461

,, John Macgregor, Esq. ....

ib.

Documentary Evidence

Evidence of Annasamy ......

462

. Captain Elliott, R. N., Protector of Slaves i

Demerara ........

. 463—470

Concluding Remarks .......

. 470—472

CONTENTS.

No. Page.
CV. — February. — Abstract of the Report of the Lords' Committees on the

condition and treatment of the Colonial Slaves, and of the Evi-

dence taken bj^ them on that subject ; with Notes by the Editor,

viz. —

Report of the Committee 473

List of Witnesses ......

474

Evidence of the Duke of Manchester

. 476—481

H. J. Hinchcliffe, Esq.

481

„ John Baillie, Esq.

. 483—489

,, The Lord Seaford . ,

. 489—494

,, Major-General Sir John Keane .

494

William Shand, Esq. .

496

Sir Michael Clare, M. D. .

497

,, Admiral Sir Lawrence Halsted .

499

,, Lieutenant Colonel A. Macdonald

ib.

,, Rev. James Curtin

500—516

,, The Lord Howard de Walden

516

Rev. Dr. Barrett

517

,, Mr. Edmund Sharp

ib.

,, A, G. Dignum, Esq. . .

519

,, James Simpson, Esq.

522

Mr. E. J. Wolsey ...

ib.

,, Thomas Williams, Esq.

523

,, William Burge, Esq. ,

523—535

,, Rev. J. Barry .....

535—540

,, Vice- Admiral the Hon. C. Fleming

540

,, William Taylor, Esq. .

540—543

,, Rev, P. Duncan . . ' .

543—548

,, Rev. T. Morgan . . .

548

Rev. W. Knibb

549—557

Rev. T. Cooper , .

557

,, Rev. J. Thorj-se .....

559

T. F. Buxton, Esq., M. P. .

560—563

Concluding Remarks ......

563

Index .........

565

ANTI>SLAVERY REPORTER,

No. 92.] JANUARY 1832. [Vol. v. No. L

I.— NEW SLAVE CODE: ORDER IN COUNCIL OF NOVEMBER 2,
1831. 1. Protectors of slaves ; 2, Sunday markets and labour ; 3. Driving
whip; 4. Arbitrary punishment ; 5. Illegal or cruel punishment ; &. Mali-
cious complaints ; 7. Records of punishment ; 8. Marriage; 9. Rights of
property; 10. Separation of families; 11. Manumission; 12. Presumptions
of slavery ; 13. Evidence; 14. Food; 15. Duration of labow ; 16. Cloth-
ing, Sj-c; 17. Religious worship ; 18. Medical aid; 19. Miscellaneous rules ;
Conclusion.

II.— INSTRUCTIONS OF VISCOUNT GODERICH TO GOVERNORS
OF COLONIES,

III.— RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA.

IV.— CAPE OF GOOD HOPE; FREE LABOUR,

I.— NEW SLAVE CODK— ORDER INCOUNCIL of Nov. 2. 183L

In our third volume, No. 58,we took occasion to analyse an Order in
Council, issued on the 3rd of February, 1830, for ameliorating the
condition of the slaves in the Crown Colonies, commenting upon some
of its provisions with feelings of regret and disappointment. A new
Order, framed on the basis of the former, but greatly modifying, and
we must add, materially improving its general tenor, has recently
appeared. It bears date the 2nd of November 1 831 , and has already,
we believe, been transmitted as an actual law to the Governors of those
Colonies, viz. Demerara and Berbice, (now forming one Colony under
the name of British Guiana,) Trinidad, St. Lucia, the Cape of Good
Hope, and the Mauritius. We proceed to give an abstract of its pro-
visions, with such observations as they appear to call for,

I. Protectors, and Assistant Protectors. — §. I. — XXVI.

The first twenty-six clauses are occupied in regulating the important
offices of Protectors and Assistant Protectors of Slaves; in pre-
scribing their duties; and in arming them with the needful authority
for duly executing their various functions. The improvements in
this part of the Slave Code are highly important, and seem to proceed
on a careful review of the obstacles which have hitherto frustrated
the benevolent intentions of the Government in appointing these
officers.

Whoever has perused with attention the various reports which
have been made to the Secretary of State, by the Protectors of Slaves
in the several Crown Colonies, will know how to appreciate the
changes which have been introduced into the present Order, and
which we shall now specify.

1. Not only all Protectors, but all Assistant Protectors also, are
now debarred, on pain de facto of loss of office, from being, in their

2 Neiu Slave Code — Protectors of Slaves.

own right or in that of their wives, the owners of any slave, or having"
any interest in, or any security upon any slave or in any land cultivated
by the labour of slaves; and from being or acting as manager, over-
seer, agent, guardian, trustee, or attorney, for any such estate, or for
any slaves. They are further debarred from hiring or employing any
slave for domestic service, unless it shall first be made to appear, to
the satisfaction of the Governor, that it is not in their power to hire
free persons to perform domestic services.* (^. VII.)

2. Power is given by this Order to every Protector, or Assistant
Protector, to enter, from time to time, and whenever he shall see
occasion, upon any plantation cultivated, in whole or in part , by
slaves, or into any house or hut inhabited by slaves, for the purpo se of
communicating Avith any slave, on any such plantation, or in any such
house ; and if any person shall, by force, or menace, or other un-
lawful means, prevent or oppose the entry, or the continuance, of
any Protector, thereupon or therein, so long as he may deem it
expedient to remain ; or oppose or prevent his communicating with
any such slave ; then the person, so offending, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanour. (§. XI.)

3. Slaves are at all times authorized to resort to the Protector to
lay their complaints before him, or to apply to him in any matter
relating to the duties of his office; and such slaves, so resorting, or
returning to their abode after so resorting, though found without a pass
or ticket from their manager, permitting their absence, shall not, for the
want of such pass, be liable to any punishment, any law or usage
to the contrary notwithstanding; — Provided neverthele ss that nothing
herein contained shall authorise any such absence of any such slave
tvithout a pass, uyiless such slave shall first have applied for a pass
to the manager and shall have failed to obtain the same from him.
(§. XIII.) And any person who, by force, or .menace, or any other
means, shall prevent slaves from resorting to the Protector, or shall
punish them for so resorting, or for any complaint or application
they shall make to the Protector, such person shall be deemed guilty
of a misdemeanour. (§. XIV.)

4. Protectors, in all matters relating to the duties of their office,
are authorized to require the attendance, at a given time and place,
of all persons complained against, or interested in the result of any
complaint, or who are supposed capable of giving evidence respecting
it, whether such persons be free or slaves, (the summons in the latter
case being addressed to the master of the slaves) and, at the given
time and place, the Protector may proceed to hear and adjudge the
cause, even in the absence of parties who shall be proved to have
been duly summoned but who shall refuse or neg ect to attend,
unless some reasonable excuse for such non-attendance shall be es-
tablished to the Protector's satisfaction. The witnesses in such cause,

* This last Provisio is uncalled for, as in evei-y Colony free domestics may be
hired. It opens, too, a door to evasion and abuse. Domestic slavery is peculiarly
corrupting, and besides this, by compelling the Protectors to resort to the ordinary^
modes of chastisement, their influence and efficiency may thereby be greatly
lessened.

Protectors of Slaves. 3

feither for or against the complaint, are to be examined on oath, and their
depositions taken down in writing, and read over to them, and signed
by them. Witnesses refusing to attend, on being duly summoned,
may be arrested by warrant of the Protector and brought before
him; and when so brought before him, if they shall refuse to be fully
examined and to give evidence, they may be committed to the com-
mon jail, there to remain till they shall submit to be fully examined ;
from which jail, however, they may be discharged by the Chief Civil
Judge, on proof that the commitment was not legal. — The forms o^
summonses and of proceedings are annexed to the Order. — Protectors)
are prohibited from acting as Magistrates, except in the cases prescribed
in the preceding clauses. (§. XV. — XXIII.)

5. Protectors shall have notice of all prosecutions against slaves
for all capital or transportable offences, and of all suits affecting the
freedom and property of slaves, and of all prosecutions for murders,
and other offences, committed on the persons of slaves, in the same
manner in which notice would be given to the slave if free ; and
Protectors shall also attend and be present at all such trials, prose-
cutions, suits, &c. ; otherwise all the proceedings that may be taken
shall be absolutely null, void, and of no effect, as against such slave.
(§. XXIV.)

6. If complaint shall be made to any Protector of any wrong or
injury done to a slave ; or if such wrong or injury shall come to his
knowledge; it shall be his duty to inquire into the case; and if, in the
result, it appear to him that any civil or criminal proceeding ought
to be instituted, it shall be his duty, and he is required, to institute
the same, as the case may be, either in the Slave's name or his own,
against any such wrong-doer, and to conduct such proceeding to its
close, by himself, or by any advocate or solicitor he may employ for
that purpose. (§. XXV.)

7. And when any slave shall come by death in a sudden, violent,
or extraordinary manner, the Protector shall hold an inquest on the
body of such slave, and shall for this purpose have the same powers
as the Coroner of any County in England possesses ; and every person,
knowing of any such death, is required, under a penalty of ten
pounds for every omission or neglect, to use his utmost diligence to
give notice thereof to the Protector of the district in which such
death shall have happened. (§. XXVI.)

We should have had only to express our satisfaction with these
alterations, had it not been for two Provisos, one mentioned in a note
on the preceding page, and the other (printed in italics) introduced
into the Order at the close of §. XIII. It appears from the papers
before us that this Proviso formed no part of the Order as at first
framed by Lord Goderich. The draft of it sent, on the 15th Sep-
tember 1830, to the West Indian Agents, with a view to their obser-
vations, did not contain it. These gentlemen were sufficiently acute
at once to perceive its importance, and the degree in which it would go
to weaken all the other provisions, by which effectual protection was
intended to be secured to the aggrieved slave ; — and yet, the reasons

4 New Slave Code — Protectors of Slaves.

they assign for requiring this concession appear scarcely to deserve
the consideration they have received.

'' The permission, " they say, " to go at all times (to the Protector
to complain) without passes might be perverted to mischievous pur-
poses, A runaway for example, on being asked for a pass, might answer
that he was going to the Protector. Whole gangs and the entire
population of a district might also go up with perfect impunity, and no
check or means appear to be provided to prevent the loss of labour
which must result to the proprietor if frivolous complaints are made."^
Papers by Command, 1831, p. 148.

To this objection Lord Goderich replies, that although " if the
power of resorting to the Protector be not given, the law will ob-
viously lose all its efficacy," he nevertheless " admits without reserve
the possibility of abuse." An amendment therefore is introduced,
" by which slaves found without a pass are exempted from punish-
ment, only on proof that they had applied to the owner for it, with
a view bona Jide to prefer a complaint, and had been refused. "^
Ibid. p. 79.

Now it is true that a slave who is really a runaway, may plead, if
he is challenged, that he is going to the Protector to complain; but
any person who has a right to challenge him, has also a right to arrest
him, if he sees reason to doubt the truth of the slave's allegation.
Having nothing to shew in proof of his statement that he is not a run-
away, he may be dealt with as such ; and this formidable risk the
slave incurs, whenever, driven by the fear of the refusal of a pass from
his manager, he ventures to the Protector without it. The risk,
therefore, and the inconvenience, are his alone. If he misrepresents
his case, he does it at the peril of suffering the penalty of desertion ;
and considering the jealousy and distrust which prevail, he may ex-
pect, if challenged, to be taken up ; though by being so taken up,,
if he has spoken the truth, he will only be brought more certainly
on his way to the Pi'otector. Where, then, is the evil ?

As to the supposition that either individuals, or whole gangs, or the
whole population of a district, may causelessly absent themselves from
labour in order to complain, it is to suppose that there is no effective
police in Slave Colonies to restrain such causeless absences, and na
punishment for false and malicious chaiges, when they are proved to
be false and malicious.

On the other hand is it not an uncalled for, and somewhat dan-
gerous abridgment of the slave's power of access to his Protector, to
be obliged to obtain the consent of the wrong-doer before being per-
mitted to go to him? and in practice, it will be found, as past
experience founded on the reports of Protectors has clearly shewn^
that such an obligation may operate most prejudicially to the slave.
Cases may occur, not only where influence or intimidation may be
sucessfully employed to prevent very grave cases of complaint from
reaching the Protector's ears, but where crime maybe added to crime,
in order to obviate the risks of investigation. The power of a manager
is great: and it does seem an anomaly of a singular kind, that the
party injured should be made to depend, for the ready means of

Sunday Markets; and Sunday Labour. 5

redress, on the willingness of the wrong-doer to afford him such means.
What a manager may do, in such a case, is painfully exemplified in an
affair occurring at the Mauritius, viz.: the case of Francis and Loff,
the slaves of Mr. Marchal, in the Protector's latest report from
that island, (p. 175, No. 91.) How easily might Mr. Marchal have
suppressed all means of detection and punishment by one additional
enormity !

II. Sunday Markets and Sunday Labour. — §. XXVII. — XXXV.

1. Sunday Markets are declared to be unlawful, and are hence-
forth absolutely to cease and determine, and all persons assembling
for such markets are to be dispersed by the officers of police, and
shall forfeit not less than five, nor more than twenty shillings for
every such offence, and the goods of the offenders may be sold, pro-
vided they are not redeemed by such offenders for a sum not less than
ten, nor more than twenty shillings ; one half of such penalty, or of
the proceeds of such sale if the goods are sold, being paid for the
use of the poor of the place, and the other half to the person making
the seizure; it being provided, nevertheless, that nothing is to pre-
vent the sale of medicines, or of provisions consumed in inns, or of
certain perishable articles, as milk, fresh meat, fish or bread, on
Sunday, between the hours set apart on that day for divine service.
(§. XXVII.— XXX.)

2. The Governor of each Colony shall, by proclamation, appoint
one day in each week for holding markets at the customary places,
and shall determine the hours at which such markets shall be held ;
and on such weekly market day, it shall not be lawful to seize, in
execution on any civil process, any slave resorting to, or being at,
or returning from, such market, and every such seizure shall be ab-
solutely null and void. (^. XXXI.)

3. No slave shall be liable to labour for the benefit or advantage
of his owner or manager, or of any other person whatsoever, on any
Sunday throughout the year ; and any person compelling any slave to
perform such labour on any Sunday, shall incur a fine of not less
than one, nor more than ten pounds ; but this prohibition shall not
extend to slaves usually employed as domestics, or in the tending or
care of cattle ; nor to any work of necessity. Under the head, how-
ever, of works of necessity, is not to be included any description of
agricultural labour, or any labour performed in the manufacture of
sugar, rum, molasses, wine, indigo, coffee, or cocoa, unless such la-
bour be undertaken to prevent, or arrest, or remedy the effects of any
fire, flood, hurricane, tempest, or such like casualty.

These regulations respecting Sunday, as far as they go, are doubt-
less very salutary, and a great improvement on the former Order ; but
still they fall very far short of the justice and necessity of the case.

In the first place, there is no provision for conferring on the slave
a right to attend the weekly market. A weekly market-day may be
duly appointed by proclamation in every colony ; and yet not one
slave in that Colony may have the power of attending such market.

6 New Slave Code — Prohibition of Driviyig Whip.

The owner is not required, by any law, to give the slave a single hour
for that purpose ; so that this well-meant but most ineffective regula-
tion may prove, instead of a source of advantage, a source of real in-
jury, to the slave. If not by law, at least by immemorial usage, the
slave has hitherto had the power of attending the Sunday market.
Henceforward itis left to the mere caprice of managers to say whether he
shall ever have it in his power to attend a market at all. Is not this a
severe grievance, a grievance too inflicted, not by colonial legislatures,
but by the King in council ? And if this oppressive arrangement
should lead, as in Antigua and other colonies, (for whose defective
legislation it seems to afford an apology,) to discontent, resistance,
and blood ; to the insurrection of the injured slaves ; to their conse-
quent subjection to military execution ; or to their judicial condem-
nation to stripes or exile or death ; would not all the misery thus
caused, and all the blood thus shed, be chargeable on the defects of
this Order ? We implore the Government, therefore, to re-consider
these clauses, and if Slavery must still continue, at least to prevent,
before it is too late, the evils which must, sooner or later, flow from
their imperfection. There is only one way of effectually obviating
those evils, and of rendering to the slaves the measure of justice which
we verily believe it is the desire and intention of the Government to
render to them ; and that is, to give them, by a positive enactment, a
right to the use of the Aveekly market-day.

We trust also that means will be devised for securing to slaves
Avho are employed on Sunday as domestics or cattle keepers, and who
are thus debarred from the enjoyment of it as a day which is to be
wholly free, as in the case of all other slaves, from *' the demands of
the master, or their own necessities," both due time for instruction
and repose, and adequate means of subsistence.

III. Prohibition of the Driving Whip. — ^. XXXVI.

The prohibition of the driving whip, or of any other like in-
strument, to impel labour of any kind, seems to be unexceptionably
expressed. The employment of it is punishable as a misdemeanour in
all who use it or who cause it to be used.

IV. Regulation of Arbitrary Punishment. — §. XXXVII. — XL.

We now come to the regulations respecting the infliction of arbi-
trary PUNISHMENT by the owner or his delegate ; and undoubtedly
there is here also very considerable improvement.

1. No female slave can legally be punished by flogging in any
case, except by sentence of a court or magistrate.

2. No male slave can be legally punished by flogging, if the num-
ber of stripes shall exceed fifteen (instead of twenty-five as in the
former Order,) for any one offence, or by any number of successive
punishments within 24 hours ; or if, at the time of such punishment,
there shall be, on the person of the slave, any unhealed wound caused
by any former punishment.

3. It shall not be lawful to punish any slave, male or female,
"wantonly, that is to say, without a reasonable and adequate cause,"
or " to inflict on any slave a pumishment more than adequate to the

Regulation of Arbitrary Punishment. II

fault ;" or " to inflict on any slave two or more punishments for any
one offence;" or to employ " two or more distinct modes of punish-
ing one and the same offence ;" or '* to employ any mode of punishing
a slave which may be both unusual, and calculated to produce
greater suffering than'the modes of domestic punishment usually era-
ployed in the colony ; or to use, in punishment, any instrument of
greater severity than is usually employed in common jails, with the
previous sanction of the chief judge, to punish persons sentenced to
bodily punishment in such jails." Neither shall it be lawful to inflict
any corporal punishment, on any slave, until the expiration of six hours
from the time of the commission of the offence; and unless one free
person, competent to give evidence in a court of justice, other than
the person authorising and the person inflicting the punishment, be
present as a witness, or, in case no such free person can be found,
three adult slaves as witnesses of the punishment ; — and any one
who shall violate any of these rules regulating arbitrary ptmishments,
or be aiding in doing so, shall be deemed guilty of a jnisdemeanour.
But these rules shall not extend to any punishments inflicted by
competent courts, or to the whipping of girls under ten years of age
as free girls are usually whipped at school. (§. XXXVII, — XXXIX.)
4. For the punishment of offences formerly punishable by whipping,
female slaves shall be liable to imprisonment, confinement in stocks,
or such other punishment as may be authorized by a proclamation of
the governor of each colony, which proclamation shall prescribe, with
all practicable precision, the nature and extent of the punishments so
to be substituted for whipping in the case of females, and also make
such regulations as may be necessary to prevent and punish any
abuses in such substituted modes of punishment. (§. XL.)

Our first remark on this part of the Order is that we lament the con-
tinuance of the power of owners and their delegates arbitrarily to in-
flict the whip, in any case, even on males. Such a power is obviously
unnecessary ; but, even if necessary, corporal punishment ought to be
inflicted only by the magistrate. It is alleged, however, to be neces-
sary, and, on the ground of that alleged necessity, the Order in
Council sanctions the continuance of the practice ; sanctions, that
is to say, the infliction, by any master or mistress, or by any dele-
gate of any such master or mistress, on any male slave, fifteen in-
cisions of the whip. And these fifteen incisions may be inflicted on
a man's bared posteriors, (for such is the practice !) for no defined
offence, without any previous trial, without the necessity of receiving-
evidence of the sufferer's guilt, or any opportunity given him of re-
butting such evidence, but at the mere discretion of any owner, or of
the delegate of such owner, whoever he may be. An attempt, we ad-
mit, is made to guard against the abuse of this tremendous and
irresponsible power ; but the attempt, however well meant, must
prove, we fear, an utter failure. It is made unlawful, indeed, to
punish a slave " wantonly," "without a reasonable or adequate cause,"
or " with more severity than is adequate to the fault ;" but a rule so
vague seems so little capable of application, as to be likely to pro-

8i Regulation of Arbitrary Punislunent.

cluce injustice either to the slave or to his manager. It would
be a benefit even to the manager, and save him probably from
much inconvenience, if a power, liable to such a latitude of con-
struction, were taken from him and placed in the hands of the
magistrate. As to the necessity of continuing such a power to the
owner or his delegate, which is the only ground on which its policy is,
or can be, maintained, it may be shewn to have no solid foundation on
which to rest. That necessity is strenuously asserted, indeed, both by
planters and by colonial governors ; but then the very same plea
was preferred, by the very same parties, for continuing to owners and
their delegates the power of flogging /emaZes ; and yet the plea was
repudiated by the King in Council ; and the power of flogging females,
except by the magistrate, or rather by the sentence of a court of
justice, was absolutely and entirely abolished, " It is impossible,"
said Mr. Paterson, the acting Governor of Grenada, "to comply with
the total prohibition of the whip as an instrument of the correction of
females," which is deemed so indispensible by Lord Bathurst. " The
women are the most turbulent of the slaves." (See our Vol. i. No.
11, p. 161.) The prohibition of the flogging of females, and even
of their indecent exposure, was peremptorily refused by the Assembly
of Jamaica in 1826, by a majority of 28 to 12. (lb. No. 21, p. 307.)
It was also peremptorily refused in the same year by the Assembly of
Barbadoes, who declared that, " to forbid, by legislative enactment,
the flogging of females, would be productive of the most injurious con-
sequences," (ibid.) and " endanger the safety of the inhabitants, the
interests of property, and the welfare of the slaves themselves." (Vol.
ii. p. 96.) Again say the Barbadoes planters, "The female slaves
evince at all times a greater disregard to the authority of their owners
than the male slaves. To deprive an owner of this mode of enforcing
obedience, or punishing disorderly conduct, would tend to encourage a
stronger disposition to insubordination." (Vol. ii. No. 37, p. 248.)
" With respect to the punishment of female slaves," say the legislators
of the Bahamas, " we deem it impracticable to substitute any other
punishment in the place of flogging. Indeed all intelligent slaveholders
hold that females, generally, require more frequent corporal punishment
than males, for with them originates a large portion of the crimes for
which males suffer." (lb. vol. ii. No. 28, p. 80.) Nay, Sir Lowry Cole
denounces to the Secretary of State, " the conduct of female slaves
as in many instances, in every respect, fully as bad as that of the worst
of the male slaves." " I admit," he says, "that the abolishing of cor-
poral punishment in the case of female slaves is highly desirable,"
yet " I conceive that bad consequences might result from its imme-
diate prohibition." (Vol. iii. No. 52, p. 71.) — We might multiply
similar protests from governors and planters against the abolition of
female flogging, in which they represent it as in the highest degree
dangerous to the peace of the colonies, and as more to be deprecated
than even the abolition of flogging as it respects the men. But his
Majesty's Government had the good sense and the humanity to disre-
gard all these unfounded objections, and to adhere to their deter-
mination to put down the flogging of females by private authority.

Regulation of Arbitrary Punishment. 9'

Why then, we ask, miist it be retained in the case of men ? Can a
single adequate reason be given for retaining it, in this latter case, which
has not been absolutely and peremptorily rejected as groundless in the
case of women ? In fact, the government, in defending this measure
against the clamours of the planters, have not adduced a single argu-
ment which would not be a valid plea for the abolition of arbitrary
flogging, by the manager, as it respects the men also. The practice is
obviously one which, without some stringent necessity, ought not to
be tolerated. But with our experience of the perfect safety of abo-
lishing it in the case of the women, who compose one half of the slave
population, it looks like gratuitous inhumanity to retain it in the case
of the men. On the testimony of the planters themselves, the men are
still less prone to insubordination than the women, who, for six or seven
years past, have been wholly exempted from the whip. Government,
therefore, we conceive, might well spare themselves the degradation of
regulating the number of incisions of the whip which the passion or the
caprice of any master or mistress, or of any ruffian delegate of such
master or mistress, may inflict or cause to be inflicted on the bare
bodies of so many of the King's subjects, and thus might their
functionaries also be spared the odious task of minutely inspecting the
state of wounds so inflicted. The experiment has already been suc-
cessfully tried for six or seven years with the females ; why should it
not be tried with respect to the males ? We press this point the
more, because we really feel a deep debt of gratitude to our present
colonial administration for much that they have both said and done,
and we should rejoice to have been able to extend our eulogy still
farther, and to have seen them and their officers rescued from the un-
seemly necessity to which this practice has reduced them of counting
the scars thus inflicted. We have only to turn for an exemplification
of the indelicate and disgusting nature of these inspections to any of
our late abstracts of the Protectors' reports. The mere allusion to the
exhibitions which Protectors are called to witness, and Secretaries of
State to comment upon, and which British ordinances unfortunately
authorize, cannot even be read in our pages without raising a blush
on the cheek of modesty.

Then with respect to the kinds of punishment which az^e to be sub-
stituted for flogging; ought these to be left to that ingenuity, in the
arts of torturing, in which the Reports of the Protectors shew the gen-
tlemen and ladies of our Slave Colonies to be such proficients ? Some
of the instruments of domestic punishment, in common use in the
Mauritius, brought home to England a year or two ago by the Com-
missioners of Inquiry, were declared by Sir George Murray, on his
personal inspection of them, to be instruments, not of correction
merely, but of torture ; and we hesitate not to affirm that a similar
judgment would be pronounced, by every humane man, unused to the
domestic discipline of Slave Colonies, on some at least of the instru-
ments which Orders in Council have sanctioned, as a substitute for
flogging, in the punishment of females. Take those which strike
a British ear as the most innocuous. The stocks, for example, is an
instrument which, in England, is used solely for the purpose of re-

c

10 Regulation of Arbitrary Punishment.

straint. But in the Slave Colonies even stocks become an instrument
of torture in the hands of masters and managers. What, indeed, can
be more exquisite torture than to thrust into stocks, even of the
simplest form, the feet of a lacerated slave, while forced to sit with his
excoriated breech on a block or bench of wood ? The limbs oi females,
it is true, cannot now be lacerated, lawfully, in the Crown Colonies,
though they still may in the chartered ; but even in their case stocks
are most skilfully contrived to serve the purposes of torture, being
made to combine the worst elements of the pillory, and of the military
picket, with a partial importation from the rack. One form of these
instruments of punishment consists of a standing frame, in which is
placed a slider with holes for both hands ; and, to prevent the hands
when so placed being withdrawn, leaden weights are attached to the
wrists of the delinquent. The hands being thus secui-ed, the slider
may be elevated until the toes just touch the ground ; and in this
painful position, occasionally aggravated by other ingenious devices,
is the wretched sufferer often suspended for an hour or more. And
yet who dreams of torture when he only hears stocks mentioned. ?
Then we have also the bar de justice, that beautiful ornament of the
salons of the ladies of Mauritius. We might go on to specify other
devices of a similar description in common iise ; but we have proba-
bly said enough to induce a doubt whether the law has sufficiently
guarded against the cruelty of the punishments that may be substituted
for flogging, by merely requiring that, as the criterion of their
humanity, they should be conformed to the usual modes of domestic
punishment.

Similar remarks might be applied to the other test which this Order
assigns, for determining the due lenity of any substituted modes of
punishment, namely, that they are employed in common jails under
the sanction of the magistrates. Now it were easy to shew that, in
the common jails and workhouses, even of Jamaica, a species of rack
has long been in general use, under the sanction of the magistrates,
for the punishment of slaves ; and that this is not confined to slaves
suffering under judicial sentence only, but is extended to those who
are sent thither, at the mere caprice of masters, mistresses, and
managers, to be punished for domestic offences, without examination
or control, without judge or jury. AH who have visited the work-
house of Kingston, and of the neighbouring parish of St. Andrew,
will uiiderstand what we mean in thus alluding to the well known,
but seldom noticed, instrument, the block and tackle, used there for
extending, to their utmost stretch, the bared bodies of men and wo-
men, while undergoing, in addition to the tension of this rack, the
agonizing application of the cart-whip.

We trust that among other expedients for effectually guarding
against the continuance or adoption of such revolting modes of pun-
ishment, the Government will take measures for an immediate inquiry
on the spot; and for the immediate transmission, to this country, of a
complete set of all those instruments of punishment now in use in the
Slave Colonies, with the names of which indeed we may be familiar,
l»ut of the real nature of which, we repeat, neither the Government

Illegal and Cruel Punishments — False and Malicious Complaints. 1 L

nor the people of this country have formed any adequate conception.
The humane mind of Sir G. Murray was justly shocked, even by the
comparatively harmless chains, and fetters, and collars, with their
prongs and their other contrivances, which were exhibited to him
as the ordinary, every-day, instruments of correction in the Mauritius;
and he indignantly pronounced them to be instruments of torture.
If a complete repository could be formed of these, and of all the other
instruments of torture used in our Slave Colonies, it would do more,
we feel, for illustrating the real nature of British Colonial Slavery,
than all that has yet been said and written upon the subject. And to
them it would be well to add models of the different forms of Cachot
spread over these Colonies, and some of which are so contrived as
to prevent the inmate of them from placing himself in any position of
body which is unattended Avith pain.

These remarks both on the expediency of transferring to the magis-
trate the power of corporal punishment in the case of male slaves,
and on the danger of leaving to the Colonial authorities the choice of
substitutions for the whip in the case of women, are strikingly con-
firmed by Mr. Jeremie, in his Essays on Slavery, reviewed in our
last number.

V. Illegal and cpvUel Punishments. — §. XLI.

If any person is convicted of having inflicted or authorized
ILLEGAL and CRUEL PUNISHMENT, or any CKUELTY towards a
slave, it shall be in the discretion of the Court before which he is
convicted, to declare his interest in the slave to be forfeited to the
King, in addition to any other penalty imposed upon him ; and if so
convicted more than once, it shall be in the discretion of the Court to
sequestrate, for his benefit, all his right in any slaves belonging to him,
in addition to any other penalty to which he may be sentenced ; and
any person on whom such sentence of sequestration has been pro-
nounced shall thereupon become incapable in law to superintend,
manage, or control any slave, on pain of being deemed guilty of a
midemeanour.

We could have wished that such sequestrations had been made
imperative on the Court, after a second or third conviction.

VI. False and Malicious Complaints of Slaves. — §. XLII.

" If it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of any Court
or magistrate, on the oath of one or more witnesses, that any slave
has preferred any ealse and malicious complaint or accusation
against his owner or manager, it shall be lawful for such Court or
magistrate to proceed, in a summary way, to sentence any such slave
to imprisonment with hard labour for not more than three months, or,
if a man, to not more than thirty-nine lashes;" — but, save as afore-
said, " no slave shall be liable to be punished by any Court or magis-
trate, or by any other authority, in respect of any complaint or
accusation preferred by him against his owner or manager, except
upon a conviction for such offence duly had in some Court of com-
petent jurisdiction; and upon due notice to the Protector."

12 Records of Arbitrary Punishments — Marriaye of Staves.

Wg are not sure that we fully understand this last clause. Its
meaning, however, appears to us to be, that no slave shall be punished,
by the authority of an owner or manager, in respect of any charge
he may bring against such owner or manager ; nor even by the au-
thority of any Court or magistrate; unless one witness at least shall
testify that the charge preferred by the slave was false and malicious;
but that, in this last case, the Court or the magistrate may punish the
offence summarily . Now we do not understand clearly what the
term summary implies. Does it imply, that in certain cases, a
slave preferring a complaint to a magistrate against his owner, if he
fail in his proof, and any one witness swears that the complaint is
false and malicious, the complaining slave may, at once, and without
a moment's delay, or any notice of trial, or any time for the slave
to prepare counter-evidence or to appeal to the Protector for his in-
terposition, have his flesh lacerated with thirty-nine strokes of the
whip by the order not only of a Court but of a single magistrate, of
which magistrate non constat that he may not be a slave-owner him-
self, deeply interested in repressing the complaints of slaves ? If
this should be the construction of the clause, then we should doubt
whether the ends of justice would be effectually secured by it, and
whether the law ought not to require, in every case, both the presence
and the advocacy of the Protector, after due notice had been given him
of the day of trial, and after a fair and full opportunity had been
allowed, through that officer, to the slave, of preparing for his trial, and
summoning his witnesses. All these necessary means of effectual
defence, are at least as essential in this case, where a powerful interest
is at work to ensure the slave's condemnation, as in any other. A
charge even of murder could not be more obnoxious than that of
having preferred, against his owner or manager, a false and malicious
complaint. We trust we may be wrong in the view we have taken of
the possible operation of the clause in question.

VII. Records of Arbitrary Punishments. — §. XLIII. — LIII.

The next eleven clauses regulate the keeping of the Records of
Punishments arbitrarily inflicted by the owners or managers of slaves.
It will not be necessary to notice such parts of these regulations as do
not alter the provisions of the former Order. The only material
variation from it which has been introduced into the present is, that
any person, engaged in managing slaves, who is himself unable to
write, may employ another person to keep his record of punishments,
and that to such illiterate manager a peculiar oath shall be adminis-
tered as to the correctness of the record.

An interval of six hours is prescribed between a slave's offence and
his punishment. In the first Orders, an interval of twenty-four hours
was required. In the Order of 1830, no interval whatever was pre-
scribed. We are glad to see some interval again interposed ; but ought
it to have been abridged from twenty-four hours to six?

VIII. Marriage of Slaves.— §. LIV.— LVIII.
We are sorry to find the excellent regulations respecting the

jRights of Property — Separation of Families — Manumission. 13

MARRIAGE of slaves still deformed by the Proviso to which we strongly
objected in the former Order of February 1830, as pointing to the
perpetuity of the servile state ; and which bears so manifestly the
stamp of colonial prejudice. (See Vol, iii. No. 58, p. 141.)

IX. Slave's Rights of Property. — §. LIX. — LXIII.

The regulations for conferring on the slave a right of property,
and for protecting him in the exercise of that essential right, seem
liable to no exception but what is involved in the very condition of
slavery. The unjust bar which had been hitherto interposed, in all
the Colonies, to the cultivation by slaves, on their own account, of any
articles of exportable produce, we are most happy to perceive, has
been removed by the just and enlightened policy of Lord Goderich.
(See Vol. III. No. 58, p. 142.)

We can see no good reason whatever to debar slaves, as is done in
one of these clauses, from possessing boats. The apprehension of
evil'is merely imaginary ; while the advantage would be very great in
a variety of ways.

X. Separation of Families. — §. LXIV. — LXIX.

The law with respect to the separation of families is very ma-
terially improved. Such separation is wholly and absolutely prohibit-
ed in the case of husband and wife, parent and child under sixteen
years, or of these reputed relations, whether by private or judicial
sale, or otherwise. It is, however, provided that, in the case of slaves
bearing to each other the relation of parent and child, or reputed
parent and child, the parties may be permitted to separate, with their
own full and free consent, and with the Protector's approbation, on
application made to him by the parties, and on due examination had
by him into all the circumstances of the case, and proof being adduced
to satisfy him that such separation will not be injurious to either party.

There is still no registry established of reputed relationships.

XL The Manumission of Slaves.— §. LXX.— LXXV.

Into the regulations respecting the manumission of slaves, whether
with the consent of the owner or by compulsory process, we need not
enter, excepting where any material changes have been made from the
former Order. These changes are as follows: —

1 . The necessity of giving bond for the maintenance of manumitted
slaves is confined to cases in which owners gratuitously manumit
slaves in a state of disease or infirmity, or above the age of sixty, or
in a state of infancy and until the infant is fourteen years of age. The
chief justice, however, may, in every case, dispense v/ith such bond,
if he is satisfied that neither the welfare of the slave to be manumit-
ted, nor the interest of the Colony, requires it.

2. In cases of manumission by compulsory process the Protector
shall name one appraiser, and the owner another; or if the owner will
not or cannot name such appraiser, the right to do so will devolve on
the chief justice, who is also to name the umpire.

3. On proof of error, or misapprehension, or fraud, or injustice, in
making the appraisement, the chief justice may set aside the valuation

14 New Slave Code — Manuviissiott.

and appoint new appraisers, and such second or any subsequent
valuation may, in like manner, be set aside by the chief justice, until
a valuation shall have been made which is not open to any just ob-
jection.

4. If it shall be proved on oath to the satisfaction of the chief
justice that any slave proposed to be manumitted shall, within five
years preceding the date of his application, have been convicted in
due course of law of any robbery or theft, the completion of such
manumission shall be stayed until the expiration of the full term of
five years from the time of such conviction.

5. All fees on voluntary manumissions are abolished, and the
expense attending the process of compulsory manumission is in no
case to exceed five pounds, which shall be borne, according to the
circumstances of the case, either by the slave or the owner respectively,
or be equally divided between both.

6. The clause in the former Order which suggested to the appraisers
the various considerations that might be admitted to enhance the value
of the slave, and that clause also which forbade any donation to assist
the slave in obtaining his enfranchisement, (See Vol. iii.No. 58, p. 145.)
are judiciously and humanely excluded from the present Order. We
feel truly grateful for this change.

The only point in these regulations which seems still liable to excep-
tion is that which stays the manumission of a slave on proof of a
conviction of robbery or theft during the preceding five years. If the
slave, indeed, could be proved to have acquired the means of his
manumission by robbery or theft, there might be some justice in refus-
ing to allow him to profit by the fruit of his crime. But suppose it
were clearly proved that a slave, treated and starved as slaves some-
times are, had been driven by hunger to purloin a portion of the food
his own labour had reared, and had been convicted of having done
so, it would seem a very cruel case that he should, in consequence of
such a conviction, not only have sustained the legal penalty annexed to
his crime, but be shut out from freedom if it should be placed within
his reach. The fault, indeed, may have been more his master's than
his own. The temptation to commit the offence may have even been
placed in his way for the very purpose of damaging his reputation and
preventing his manumission ; and it must be admitted to be a very heavy
visitation indeed, if in addition to the ordinary punishment of larceny
he may have undergone, (for the conviction would imply that he had
been already punished,) he should be shut out from liberty when at-
tainable. The clause too, as now framed, may, in some cases, have all
the unjust operation of an ex post facto law.

While we make these remarks, we wish it to be understood, that we
continue to deny the justice, in point of principle, of the whole
system of manumission, by which a slave is compelled \o purchase the
freedom to which he has the most indubitable right, and of which he
has been deprived only by Avrong and robbery. Still, however, we
hail with thankfulness, the additional impulse given to the cause of
freedom by the more liberal provisions of the present code. We are

New Slave Code — Manumission. ' 15

still more gratified by the elevated, and statesmanlike tone adopted by
Lord Goderich, in the discussion which has passed on the subject with
the West Indian body.

The West Indians plant themselves on the ground of the petition
and remonstrance of the planters in Berbice and Demerara, argued
in 1827 before the Privy Council ; and they express themselves deeply
mortified to find that the present Order is still more objectionable
than any preceding Order, and that it has even removed those two
safeguards which found a place in the Order of 1830 ; — the direction
to take into account the moral and useful qualities of the slave in fixing
his appraised value ; and the prohibition of all voluntary donations or
charitable contributions in aid of manumission. They protest against
these omissions as incompatible with their rights of property, and impute
inconsistency to the government for having omitted them. (Papers
by Command for 1831, pp. 146 and 170.)

Mr. Irving, the member for Bramber, goes far beyond his brother
planters and merchants. He addresses a long letter to Lord Goderich,
in a style of singular presumption, filled with utterly unfounded state-
ments and with the most extravagant and almost ludicrous arguments.
He takes up at some length the subject of compulsory manumission ;
and in defiance of all the known facts of the case, facts Avhich his
associates do not seem so hardy as to controvert, he chooses single-
handed to affirm, that " all experience proves that liberated slaves of
all ages and conditions almost invariably sink into a state of vaga-
bondage, and one way or other become a scandal and burthen to
the community." Nothing can exceed the contrast to truth evinced
in this statement, except its malignant and hurtful tendency.

Lord Goderich, in replying to the West India planters and agents
on this subject, makes a variety of just and striking observations, of
which we can transcribe but a small part. " The clause which re-
quired the appraisers to take into account all the slaves' qualities," he
says, " was superfluous and inconvenient :" " it could do no good and
might do much harm." " In every country, and at every period,
property of every description is continually bought and sold by ap-
praisement, and the difficulty of finding an exact measure is fitter
for the schools than for the market." Just so it is with the value of
slaves. Rules respecting it " belong rather to a treatise on appraise-
ments than to a law directing an appraisement to be made." Besides,
" the silence of the law is in favour of the owner whose slave is to be
sold." The appraisers are of his class. The more latitude of dis-
cretion they enjoy the more will their sympathy with him operate.

His Lordship next shews the extreme absurdity of the apprehensions
entertained of danger from the large contributions of individuals or of
associations to manumit slaves. One of the arguments of the West
Indians against them is, that they dispense with all test of previous in-
dusti-y. But if this is to prevent compulsory manumission why should
it not also prevent voluntary manumission ? " Why not interdict
gratuitous as well as compulsory manumissions in favour of idlers ?
Nay the argument," he says, " is stronger if the manumission be gratui-
tous. Caprice, personal attachments, and a variety of motives, induce
owners to liberate slaves with little or no reference to personal charac'

16 Presumption of Freedom or Slavery.

ter. But Avhen money is given to the slave of another person, to
enable that slave to acquire his freedom, the chances are that the
slave has some peculiar merits. This is a patronage which is likely
to be w^ell bestowed. The remonstrants themselves complain that
their best people and most skilful labourers will be selected as the
objects of this dreaded bounty. If so, there is then the test of indus-
trious habits which is required." " If this objection be sustained,"
" slavery must be permanent as far as law can make it so, since even
when the most ample compensation is tendered, the owner claims a
right to refuse it. To require that the slave shall never buy his free-
dom but with his own earnings, is but to say indirectly that without
the owner's consent he should never buy it at all. That is to say,
the law of compulsory manumission is to be established and revoked
at the same moment. For how can a slave ever earn money if it be
the owner's supposed interest and fixed design to prevent it?" ib. pp.
76—78.

XII. Presumptions of Freedom or Slavery. — ^. LXXXVI.

The present ordinance has made a very important addition to the
Slave Code, by introducing the following rules to be observed in
determining the free or servile condition of persons alleged to
be slaves, so often as any question of this kind shall arise in any
court, or before any magistrate. These are :

1. Every person whose servile state is disputed, who shall be of the
age of 20 years and upwards, and who shall be proved to have been
in fact, and without interruption, held in slavery for the 20 years next
preceding the time of the inquiry, shall be presumed to be a slave.

2. The same presumption shall have effect in the case of a person
under 20, who shall be proved to have been a slave without interruption
from the time of birth, and to have been born of a mother then in a
state of slavery.

3. In cases where a registry of slaves has not been established for
20 years, then it shall be sufficient to carry back the proof to the time
of the first establishment of a registry.

4. In the absence of all such evidence as aforesaid, the person
shall be presumed to be free.

5. The presumption of slavery arising from such proof may be re-
pelled and destroyed by the evidence of facts fi'om which the alleged
slave's right to freedom may be legally inferred.

6. The sentence of any court or magistrate shall be governed by
these presumptions, unless they shall be repelled or destroyed in the
manner last mentioned.

7. The state of slavery of any person shall not be deemed to have
been interrupted by marooning or desertion on the part of the slave ;
or by his temporary residence in any country where slavery is not re-
cognized by laio, (as in England for example.)

8. The mere registration of any person as a slave shall not be ad-
mitted, by any court or magistrate, as proof of the slavery of the
person registered; but it shall be competent to such person, or to any
other on his behalf, to controvert by evidence the accuracy of any such
registration.

Presumptions of freedom and Slavery, 17

A part of these rules, particularly the whole of the third and the
latter part of the seventh, owe their introduction into this Order to
the remonstrances of the West Indians. To the first of these altera-
tions we object, because, much to the disadvantage of the slave, it
reduces the period of uninterrupted possession, required to establish the
presumption of slavery, from 20 to 14 years, few registries dating before
1817. To the second, we entertain still stronger objections. It is the
recognition, as a rule of law, of the judgment of Lord Stowel in the
case of the slave Grace. We trust that the manifest injustice and
inconsistency of such a recognition will be speedily obviated by a par-
liamentary enactment. A French slave escapes from Martinique to
Dominica or St. Lucia, and he becomes, immediately on his landing,
a free man ; and yet a British slave may reside even twenty years in
England ; he may have acquired there a liberal education, and have
followed a liberal profession; he may have married an English female,
and had children by her ; he may have sei'ved the king in a civil or
military capacity ; and on his return to a British Colony, he may, never-
theless, be reduced again to the degrading condition of a slave. This
state of things, we conceive, cannot long be maintained, and we look
with confidence to the efforts of our parliamentary friends to provide
an early remedy.

On this part of the case the West Indians assume a high tone, and
urge their rights of property in the most peremptory and unreserved
terms : Slaves are as much their property as his landed estate is the
property of the English gentleman. We will not now enter upon this
question. We have already largely discussed it. (See vol. ii. No. 27,
p. 29.) We will, however, lay before our readers one extract from
Lord Goderich's reply to their unmeasured claims. It is as follows :

"Much is said," observes his Lordship, "on the abstract question
of the right of the owner to his slaves, which is compared to that
which an Englishman possesses in his land. It is scarcely worth
while to agitate questions so abstract as this, but the particular
analogy is obviously defective. The house and land of the English
proprietor have no interest in the question whether they are his pro-
perty or not. But the alleged slave of the West India owner has.
Property in inanimate matter and in a rational being cannot stand
precisely on the same basis. The right of the alleged owner must be
respected, but it is also necessary to respect the right of the alleged
slave. The peaceful occupation of a house for a day is some pre-
sumption of title," but no one will assert that " if he can bring a
fellow creature under his dominion for twenty-four hours he has a
legal right to prolong that dominion unless a title to freedom can be;
proved. Whence is the proof to come? How is the subjugated indi-
vidual to escape in quest of it ? How is he to sustain the expence ?
What if he be a stranger, or what if he have no manumission deed, or
have lost or been forcibly deprived of it ? The bondage of an hour
would give a presumption and practically an indefeasible title to hold
him in slavery for life, if the principle contended for were admitted."
" Possession is the single foundation on which the whole right of the
owner rests, and when that right is questioned it is just and reasonable

Ig New Slave Code.

that the possession should be proved." (lb. p. 83.) In other words,
the burden of proof ought to rest on the claimant of another's
freedom. How strange it is that at this late hour, in the year 1831,
discussions such as these, so directly at war with all sound principles
of British law, not to say of common morality, should still be occupy-
ing the time and thoughts of British statesmen !

XIII. Admissibility of Slave Evidence. — §. LXXXVII.
The law here is clear and precise, and most satisfactory. It is,
that no person shall henceforth be rejected as a witness, or be deemed
incompetent to give evidence in any court, civil or criminal, or before
any judge or magistrate, in any civil or criminal proceeding what-
ever, by reason of being in a state of slavery ; but the evidence
of slaves shall, in all courts and for all purposes, be received in
the same manner, and subject to the same rules, as the evidence
of free persons.

XIV. Food and Maintenance of Slaves. — §§. LXXXVIII. and

LXXXIX.

The following are the rules which now regulate, for the first time,
the supremely important point of the food and maintenance of
slaves.

1. Every owner or manager shall, in the first week of January in
each year, deliver to the Protector a declaration, in a prescribed form.,
specifying whether he intends, during the ensuing year, to maintain
his slaves by the cultivation of ground appropriated to them for that
purpose, or by an allowance of provisions ; which declaration shall be
recorded in the Protector's office, and be revocable by the owner, on a
month's previous notice to the Protector, without which notice, or
a written authority from the Protector, under his hand, the owner
or manager cannot change the mode of maintaining his slaves which he
has notified.

2. Every owner or manager, who shall propose to maintain his
slaves by an allowance of provisions, shall be bound to supply, of
good, average, merchantable quality, sound, and fit for consumption,
provisions to the amount and of the kinds following, viz. : Each and
every slave above the age of ten years shall receive, in each week,
not less than 21 pints of the flour or meal of Guinea or Indian corn ;
or 21 pints of wheat flour; or 5Q full grown plantains; or 5Q pounds
of cocoas or yams; and also seven herrings, or shads, or other salted
provisions equal thereto ; — or if these particular articles of food can-
not be procured, he may substitute for the saihe, always either by pro-
clamation of the Governor, or with the authority of the Protector,
other kinds of provisions, which shall be deemed by such Governor or
Protector to be equivalent thereto and equally nutritious ; all which
provisions shall in no case be delivered to the slaves on a Sunday,
but on some one and the same working day in each successive week,
anless delayed by accident or unavoidable cause. And all owners or
managers shall moreover, at their expence, supply the slaves with the
means of preserving the provisions so allowed them, from week to
week, and of properly preparing the same for human food.

Food and Maintenance of the Slaves. 10

3. Every slave below the age of ten years shall be supplied, in like
manner, with one half of the before-mentioned allowance, in each
week, to be delivered to the mother or nurse of every such infant slave.

4. Every owner or manager, who shall propose to maintain his
slaves by the appropriation of ground to be cultivated by them for
that purpose, shall be bound to set apart for every slave, being of the
age of fifteen years and upwards, half an acre of land properly
adapted for the growth of provisions, and not more than two miles
from the slave's place of residence; and for every slave under fifteen
a quarter of an acre of like ground, to be set apart for the father or
mother, or reputed father or mother, or the guardian of such infant ;
and to every slave to whom such ground shall thus be appropriated,
every owner or manager shall supply sucb. seeds and implements of
husbandry* as may be necessary for cultivating the ground, on such
slave first entering upon it.

5. It shall not be lawful to dispossess any slave of any land so
cultivated, until such slave shall have had full time to reap and gather
in all the crops growing upon it ; which crops, while growing, and
when gathered, shall be the sole and absolute property of the slave to
whom such land was appropriated.

6. Every slave, to whom any ground shall have been so appro-
priated, shall, in each year, be allowed forty days, at the least, for the
cultivation thereof, in forty successive weeks, so that from the com-
mencement thereof, one Sunday at the least may intervene between
every two successive days, until the entire number of forty days shall
be completed; each of such forty days to consist of twenty-four hours,
commencing at the hour of six in the morning and terminating at the
hour of six on the succeeding morning ; and such slave shall by all
lawful means be compelled to cultivate such grounds ; and owners
and managers not so compelling them, shall be liable to provide the
foregoing allowance, as if such ground had not been set apart for
the support of such slaves.

7. The penalties on any owner or manager, neglecting to make the
declaration required, shall be £5 for the first week's neglect, £10 for
the second, £15 for the third, and so on in arithmetical progression
for each week the neglect shall continue. For a failure or neglect in
any of the other regulations, respecting allowances of provisions,
the owner or manager shall incur a penalty equal to twice the amount
of the loss incurred by each slave in consequence of such failure or
neglect, the sum to go to the benefit of the sufi'ering slave ; and for
any omission or neglect, in regard to the appropriation of ground
and the grant of the full time for cultivating it, there shall be, for every
ofience, a penalty of ten shillings, to go to the person injured ; the
number of such penalties being equal to the number of slaves af-
fected by it, multiplied by the number of days on which such offences
may have been repeated.

* Seeds, scarcely ever used in the cultivation of the slaves, are meant, we pre-
sume, to include slips and plants. As for implements of husbandry, those alone
in common use, even on plantations, are the rude implements of the hoe, and the
bill or the cutlass. Such is the hostility of slavery to all improvement !

30 New Slave Code.

That, ill the weekly allowance of farinaceous or vegetable food as-
signed to the slaves, the present Order in Council has not exceeded
the line of the very strictest moderation, is manifest from this circum-
stance, that although it is more than twice as much as is measured out to
the slaves of Demerara and of the Leeward Islands, it is not more than
the legislature of Jamaica has repeatedly assigned, as being the pro-
per and necessary weekly subsistence of the prisoners and runaway
slaves confined in the jails and workhouses of that colony, namely
twenty-one pints of wheat flour and other articles of food in like
proportion. No one can believe that this allowance, deliberately
adopted for a century past by the Assembly of Jamaica for criminals
and deserters, can be more than enough, if it be even adequate, for the
due sustentation of labouring adults.

The quantity of fish, however, which is allowed, is certainly too
small. Even the miserable schedule of the Demerara law gives ta
the slave two pounds of salt fish weekly. Now the present Order re-
gulates this matter not by weight but by tale. Seven herrings, there-
fore, the prison allowance of Jamaica, will weigh very differently
according to their size. The Code Noir of France, which ought to
have regulated the quantity both in the Mauritius and St. Lucia, is
more liberal. It gives, by its 22nd clause, two pounds of salted beef,
or three pounds of fish, weekly, to all slaves of ten years old and up-
wards, and half that quantity to those under ten.

At present, in Jamaica and the other Colonies where land and
time are given to the slaves in order to grow their own provisions, a
weekly allowance of six or seven herrings, in each week or fortnight,
is also given. The present Order is silent on the subject, but we think
it cannot be intended that this allowance should be discontinued. If
it is, the new law would be in this respect a deterioration, and not an
improvement of the condition of the slaves in those colonies.

With respect to the alternative allowed the planters of allotting
land to the slaves for the purpose of raising their food, it is obvious
that it is liable to very great abuse, and requires the unceasing vigi-
lance of public functionaries to prevent its becoming a source of the
worst oppression to the slave. There must of necessity be found on
every estate a great many infants and other persons who, from age
or infirmity, are wholly incapacitated from availing themselves of such
means of subsistence. It is true, that the Order requires that land-
should be appropriated for the use of each slave however young ; but
it does not prescribe by what means such land is to be cultivated. It
can hardly be expected that a father, a mother, or a guardian should
be able, in the time which is thought not more than adequate to be
employed by an adult slave for his own comfortable siistenance, to
■cultivate also the land of the children or others dependent upon him.
What is especially wanted in this case is not the land, but the
time and labour required to cultivate that land ; and it is obvious,
that, to a family of infant children, the land could be of no use with-
out the appropriation to the parent or guardian of the time and labour
necessary for its due culture. The same principles which dictate that,
in the case of a weekly allowance, every child, as well as every aged

" Food and Maintenance of the Slaves. 21'

and infirm person, shall have his portion of food duly allotted to him,
seem also to require, that if such person is to be fed from the land
assigned to him, he can only be so fed by a due application of that
labour by which alone it can be made productive.

But on this point the Order is silent; and, therefore, in this vitally
essential respect, is clearly defective.

But how, it may be asked, has this matter been hitherto managed
in those Colonies where the slaves are sustained (m so far as they are
sustained at all,) from their own provision grounds ? The plan has
been to allot, besides the Sunday, at most, about twenty-six other
days in the year for this purpose, leaving it to the natural affection
of parents to take care of their infant offspring or aged relations,
and only stepping in to remedy the defects of the system in extreme
cases. Now if the working of this coarse and clumsy and ill regulated
system has hitherto required, in such colonies, the appropriation of
fifty-two Sundays, and twenty-six week-days in the year, in order to
enable its slave population to subsist at all, then it is perfectly clear,
that the arrangements of the present Order, on this point, are wholly
inadequate to the exigencies of the case. For let it be remembered,
that the slave population in Jamaica, for example, where this mode of
providing for the slaves has prevailed, has been hitherto, under its
operation, not an increasing, but a rapidly decreasing, population.

The Maroons of that island, who like the slaves are negroes, in
consequence of the sufficiency of food which their possession of ample
time enables them to raise, increase progressively at the rate of nearly
2^ per cent, per annum, while the slaves that surround their settle-
ments have been progressively decreasing, and on sugar estates at a
rate nearly equal on the average to the increase of the Maroons.
Can any thing more clearly establish the fact, that the 78 days,
hitherto allotted to the slaves of Jamaica for the purpose of culti-
vating their grounds, are inadequate to their due sustentation ? If
Jamaica then has hitherto required that 78 days in the year should be
appropriated to this object, in order to sustain in living action a popu-
lation still so scantily fed as to be rapidly decreasing, it is perfectly
undeniable that at least as large, if not a much larger, portion of time
will be indispensable to sustain, in any tolerable health, or vigour, or
comfort, a population which it is the object of the Government shall
increase, and not diminish, from year to year. Indeed, without this,
what can be reasonably expected, from the arrangements of the present
Order, but the continuance of the same rapid waste of human life which
has marked the annals of Jamaica in each succeeding page of its his-
tory ? And the case of Jamaica is necessarily, in a greater or less de-
gree, the case of all the other colonies similarly circumstanced.

But what does the present Order prescribe on this vital and all
essential point ? It appropriates to the slaves only forty days in the
year, for the cultivation of their grounds, in all those cases where the
owner makes his election that the slaves shall entirely grow their own
provisions, instead of being fed by means of a fixed allowance. But this
portion of time, even supposing the land to be good and conveniently
situated, is wholly insufficient for the purpose. It is in fact a most

2-2 Neiv Slave Code.

material abridgement of the time which the slave is now forced to
appropriate to raising his present scanty subsistence. In Jamaica,
and in other colonies where the slaves grow their own provisions, all
the Sundays in the year, and twenty-six week days besides, (making
in all seventy-eight days,) have been regularly appropriated by law
(and we shall assume the law to have been executed) to the cultiva-
tion of their provision grounds ; but even that time is proved by the
results to be barely sufficient to enable them to maintain themselves
and their families. This view of the matter, it is true, has been
strenuously denied by some West Indian writers, but the falsehood of
their representations has been over and over again demonstrated with
an overwhelming force of evidence. Those who wish to see that evidence
collected into one point, have only to read with attention the irrefra-
gable statements in Mr. Stephen's Delineation on this subject, and along
note which we have inserted in our second voluntte,No.41,p. 314 — 318,
and which it will therefore be unnecessary for us to repeat in this place.
The result of that evidence, (and it is, in every instance, the evidence
not of abolitionists, but of West Indian planters,) is, that without the
employment of the Sunday, in addition to twenty-six other days in the
year, the negroes must be unable to supply their wants. Twenty-six
days are now given to them ; but still they must labour on the Sunday
or starve. Now what does the present Order prescribe on this head ?
Sunday labour for the master's benefit has by that Order been absolutely
prohibited, it being declared to be the principle and intention of Go-
vernment, that " Sunday should be to the slave population, in all the
Colonies, a day of entire relaxation from compulsory labour, and open
to be devoted to religious duties and to moral instruction," and espe-
cially that it " should be wholly clear from the demands of the master
and the necessities of the slave." These are the words of the Secretary
of State on the 3rd and 15th September, 1828. (See our vol. iii.. No. 52,
p. 55.) Yet the present Order gives to the slave, for the culture of
his grounds, only forty days in lieu of the seventy-eight days which
were formerly considered, and even by West Indian legislatures, as not
more than adequate to that object. Now as it is most clearly the
benevolent intention of the Government that Sunday shall be strictly a
day of repose for the slave, during which, indeed, he shall be invited
and encouraged to avail himself of all the means of education and
religious instruction within his reach, but which, with this exception,
he shall be allowed to devote to the recruiting of his exhausted
strength by rest from labour ; and to purposes of recreation and
domestic enjoyment ; it is not easy to account for the appropriation to
his use of only forty week-days in the year for his grounds ; and as
this time must prove insufficient for his maintenance, a large portion of
each Sunday, if not every Sunday in the year, must still be occupied
by the slave in cultivating his provision grounds, in order, if not to save
himself and his family from famine, at least to ensure them a subsis-
tence. But by thi-s unavoidable, and therefore really, though in-
directly, compulsory desecration of the day, its moral and religious
benefits must be greatly impeded, if not wholly frustrated. The habit
of secularizing the Sunday, and turning it from its spiritual uses to the

Food and, Maintenance of the Slaves. 23

ordinary pursuits of life, will not only be rendered necessary by this
law, but will place the supreme authorities of the state in this pre-
dicament, that while they are professing to have at heart the entire and
exclusive dedication of Sunday to its higher and more legitimate
ends ; yet, by their own special act, they render it impossible for the
slave to abstain from labour on that day. We trust that government
will re-consider the bearing of this clause on the happiness and com-
fort of the slave, and on the success of all their purposes of elevating
his moral and intellectual condition. Less than seventy-eight week days,
it is clear, will not and cannot suffice in order that he may have it in
his power to enjoy a Christian Sabbath. By the present arrangement
also, only forty days in forty successive weeks being given to the slave,
the slave, during twelve weeks, or one whole quarter of the year, may
be wholly precluded from having a single day for his grounds, or even
from bringing thence, for himself and his family, the weekly supply of
the food they require, unless he shall occupy the Sunday with that in-
dispensable labour. These three months also, during which he will
thus be debarred from visiting his grounds except on Sunday, the
planters, with whom it rests to make the choice, will generally and
naturally fix in the season of high crop, February, March, and
April, that they may then engross the whole time of the slave without
interruption. But this also is the season the best adapted for clear-
ing his own ground of trees, shrubs, and weeds, and preparing it for
being planted, in time to meet the early rains of the year.

This whole matter is of such prime, such vital, importance to the
temporal well being of the slave, and to the efficiency of many of the
other parts of this Order in Council, and more especially to the ob-
ject of his religious instruction and moral improvement, that we shall
be excused if we discuss it at still greater length than Ave have yet
done. We are not now considering the larger question, whether, if
the date of slavery is still to be prolonged, this system of throwing on
the slaves the task of feeding themselves, under all the difficulties and
anomalies attendant upon it, shall be continued or not. On that part
of the question we should have much to say, if the system were now
commencing. We shall take it as it exists. It is the plan actually
pursued in most of our Colonies, and our present observations are in-
tended to apply to the regulations which now, for the first time, are
brought forward to control its abuses, and to secure to the slaves what-
ever advantages it may really be capable of producing. To this end
Jamaica shall still furnish us with our example. It comprises half
of the slaves of the West Indies, and about three-fourths of those
of them who are thus sustained.

Previous to the first serious agitation of the question of slavery in
this country, in 1787, Jamaica had as yet adopted no legislation
whatever on the subject of food for the slaves. Alarmed by the
searching inquiries which the Privy Council addressed to them on that
occasion, especially as to the causes of the appalling waste of human
life in the Islands, which was then for the first time brought before
the view of the British public, its legislature drew up and transmitted
a Report, bearing date the 12th of November, 1788, as an answer

24 Neio Slave Code.

to those inquiries, and as a vindication of the lenity and liumanity of
their system. In this report, — besides the more general causes of
decrease derived from the ordinary topics of the inequality of the sexes,
the great mortality incurred during the seasoning of new slaves, and
the prevailing licentiousness of manners ; we find this allegation, that
a succession of hurricanes, which had occurred between the years
1780 and 1787, by destroying the plantain groves, had produced fre-
quent famine, and consequent disease from scanty and unwholesome
food, so as actually to sweep off, from this cause alone, in the course
of the five or six preceding years, 15,000 slaves. On the plantain
tree the slaves had hitherto been left mainly to depend for their sub-
sistence ; and its stately but fragile stem being wholly unable to resist
the blast of hurricanes, the slaves were necessarily left in a state of
deplorable destitution.

But how came it to pass, in a country where hurricanes were pre-
valent, that the slaves, by the admission of the legislature, were left
to depend chiefly on this precarious resource ? The reason is obvious.
Before 1788 no week day had ever been allowed to the slave by law for
raising provisions. His opportunities of labouring in his ground were
limited to the Sunday, except at the mere arbitrament of his manager.
He naturally, therefore, turned his attention almost exclusively to the
growth of the plantain tree, which yielded more food with less labour
than any other article. In that year the attention of the legislature
was at length called, both by the disastrous results of past neglect and
by the proceedings at home, to some reform in the system. Accordingly
in an Act, bearing date Dec. 6, 1788, various provisions were adopted
for securing, independently of the plantain, an adequate supply of
ground provisions, as yams, eddoes, cassada, &c., and, among others,
the following, viz. § 17, "And whereas it hath been usual and cus-
tomary with the planters in this island to allow their slaves one day in
every fortnight to cultivate their own provision grounds, exclusive of
Sundays, except during the time of crop, but the same not being
compulsory, be it further enacted that the slaves belonging to or
employed on every plantation shall be allowed one day in every fort-
night to cultivate their own provision grounds (exclusive of Sunday)
except during the time of crop, under the penalty of £10."

The assumption that such had been the practice is in the usual
style of West Indian legislation, taking credit for past humanity
without the slightest evidence, even of a presumptive kind, that such
humanity was generally exercised. By this law, however, the slave
had now assigned to him a number of week days, varying from thir-
teen to sixteen or seventeen, according to circumstances, in addition
to the Sundays. Thus the law continued for 28 years without
change, when, in 1816, during the agitation of the Registry Bill, a
measure expressly grounded, among other reasons, on the large pro-
gressive decrease of the slave population, arising presumptively .from
excessive labour, and scanty feeding, the legislature passed a new
slave law assigning to the slave, out of crop, twenty-six days in the
year, besides Sundays, for the culture of his provision grounds ;
and in this state the law remains to the present hour.

Food and Maintenance of the Slaves. 25

During the whole of this period, therefore, of 43 years, all the
Sundays and twenty-six week days in each year have been employed,
by the plantation slaves, in raising for themselves and their families
the food Avhich has supported them in life, and enabled them to
labour. And independently of all the other proofs we have it in our
power to adduce, in order to shew that the time thus given has not
been more than sufficient for its purpose, stands out the incontrover-
tible fact that the slave population, especially on sugar plantations,
not only does not increase, but is still rapidly decreasing. For the
proof of this fact we need go no farther back than to the registered
returns for the twelve years preceding 1830, of the slave population
in the Plantain-Garden-River district of St. Thomas in the East, deci-
dedly one of the most favourable districts in the whole island for the
growth of provisions, which we have inserted in a late number of our
work, (No. 89, p. 465). From this incontrovertible document it ap-
pears that the decrease in that time (the births being deducted)
amounted to 12§ per cent. Now such a dec^'ease as this, going on,
regularly and progressively, in a climate congenial to the Negro ; in
a country visited by no pestilence ; where the sexes were fairly
balanced ; where there were no importations from abroad ; and
where, during precisely the same period, and the same circumstances
of climate, colour, and race, the Maroons, enjoying abundant time
for raising food, increased at the rate of 30 per cent. ; must have been
attended with much human suffering, owing, in some measure, at least,
to the indequate supply of food. But it is obvious that no part of the
suffering arising from this cause would have been endured, for a series
of years, by theslaveSjwithoutmakingevery effort toescape from itwhich
circumstances rendered possible. The gnawings of hunger will urge
the most indolent to exertion, and those gnawings would not have
been endured by any who had the time and opportunity requisite for
abating their painful influences. They would not have been endured,
at least, by men and women who had seventy-eight days in the year
given in which they might labour to abate their intensity, withou;
putting forth their utmost strength to obtain food. We may, there-
fore, assume that they did so, and that, if they failed of their purpose,
it was only because the time given was not sufficient to effect it. But
that time amounted, during the whole period of which we speak, to
seventy-eight days in the year. And ought that time to be now les-
sened, and lessened too by the Act of the King's Government ?
Ought it to be reduced, as is the case, to about one-half of its former
amount? Is such a reduction consistent with justice and humanity?
We appeal with perfect confidence on this point to the British public,
to the Government, nay to the West Indians themselves. If the forty
days actually allowed shall be made adequate, it can only by some
compulsory process more galling than the Government would be will-
ing to contemplate.

And if, quitting this sure and irrefragable ground of general prin-
ciple, we refer to minor authorities, the result is the same. Again we
refer to our former article (vol. ii. No. 41, p. 315, &c.), for a series
of conclusive testimonies on this subject. What says Mr. Stewart,

E

26 New Slave Code.

the author of the Past and Present State of Jamaica, (p. 318,) the
staunch advocate of West Indian interests, and himself long a resi-
dent in that Island ? " Few of the slaves," he says, " have it in their
power to attend church" on Sunday ; for " Sunday is not a day of
rest or relaxation to the plantation slave; he must work on that day
or starve." And why must he work on that day or starve, but because
seventy-eight days labour in the year (the number enjoyed by the
slave in 1822 when Mr. Stewart wrote,) were absolutely required to
keep him from starving? — Again, in May 1826, another Mr. Stewart,
the Hon. James Stewart, Member for Trelawney, and father of the
House of Assembly of Jamaica, tells his assembled constituents, each
of them equally cognizant with himself of the facts of the case, " If
we are sincere in our desire to improve the moral condition of our
slaves, Sunday markets should be abolished altogether, and another day
in the week be allowed the negro for the cultivation of his land, and
the sale of his provisions." And yet, in 1826, the slave had, by the
law of Jamaica, fifty-two Sundays, and twenty-six week days, (that is
to say seventy-eight days) in the year, for the cultivation of his land,
and for marketing. How then is it that the present Order, in aiming
to supersede this law, and to rescue the slave's Sunday from the de-
mands of his master and his own necessities, proposes to supply the
subtraction of fifty-two Sundays labour, now allowed by that law? By-
adding the labour of fifty-two additional week days to the twenty-six
he already possesses ? No ! but by adding fourteen ! in short, by
reducing his seventy-eight days, — which now afford him but a starv-
ing subsistence, a subsistence at least so scanty as to be wearing out
his life by inches, — to forty ! Is this possible ? If possible, is it just ?
We again appeal and appeal with confidence, not to the British public
only, but to the Government itself, and even to every West Indian
proprietor who has one spark of humanity in his bosom. This law
cannot stand : it must be changed.

Our views of this subject will be aptly illustrated by a reference to-
the actual state of the law, at this moment, in the island of St. Lucia.
There it is ordained that when the master shall elect that his slaves
shall be wholly maintained by the culture of provision grounds, he shall
assign to them not only a sufficiency of fertile land, but ninety-one
week-days in the year for cultivating it. (See Papers by Command,,
for 1827, Part II. p. 160 and 162.) Now let us only compare this
enactment, which is now in effective operation in the fertile island of
St. Lucia, with the time which it is proposed to give to the slave in
the inferior and worn-out soil of Jamaica, for example, and can we
fail to be struck with its utter inadequateness to its object ? And can
it possibly be that the ninety-one week-days, which the slaves of St.
Lucia now enjoy, are to be reduced, by the operation of the present
Order, to forty ? This single fact seems quite decisive of the question.

Before, however, we entirely quit this head of discussion, we would
once more call the attention of our readers to the Code Noir of
France. That Code after first guarding, as we have seen, by a com-
pulsory standard of weekly rations, against the propensity of masters
to starve their slaves, has introduced an express prohibition, which

Food and Maintenance of the Slaves. 27

shews how well aware the framers of it were of the fraudulent evasions
by which their humane object was likely to be defeated. " We pro-
hibit the masters," says the 24th Article of the Code, " from relieving
themselves from the feeding and subsistence of their slaves, by giving
them permission to labour on a certain day in the week, for their own
individual account." The specious reasons that might be opposed to
such a prohibition, need not to be stated. They are sufficiently ob-
vious ; and all that can be urged in defence of so casting, upon the
slaves, the task of providing for their own subsistence, has been re-
peatedly brought forward by the planters of Jamaica and the other
colonies, where they have provision grounds enough to spare for the
purpose without a sacrifice of cane lands. And there, doubtless, the
system works well, if not for the ease, or the health, or the life of the
slave, at least for the purse of the masters. It affords them the means
of reducing the cost of slave labour to the price of a few herrings,
and a most scanty allowance of clothing by the year (see Stephen's
Delineation of Slavery, vol. ii. chapter 12), without much subduction
from the master's time. And now, this substitute for allowances which,
by the latest law of Jamaica, was limited to 26 week-days, besides
Sundays, is to be reduced, in all the colonies, to only forty days in
the year. After all, therefore, that has been promised and attempted,
British humanity is still, on this point, behind the French by more
than a century and a half.

But the authors of the Code Noir were aware that a commutation of
time for food, even at the rate of 52 days in the year, was adverse to
the slaves ; and yet such as the masters for their own interest would
resort to unless effectually restrained ; and that they judged right in
this respect was proved by the event. The law indeed was too unpo-
pular among the planters to be observed ; and though often renewed
by the French Court continued to be ineffectual ; for in the French
Colonies as in our own, the influence of the planters on the local au-
thorities, generally members of their own body, was too strong to be
easily controuled by the Government at home. In the Annals of the
Sovereign Council of Martinique, published in 1786, we find the fol-
lowing remarks on the 22nd and 24th Articles of the Ordinance of
1685, which we have quoted above : — •" Ces deux articles ont ete
souvent renouvelles depuis, sur-tout par une Ordonnance du 20 De-
cembre 1712, enregistree le 8 Mai 1713; par une Ordonnan e du
Gouvernment du 2 Janvier 1715, et par un Arret du Conseil du 6cMai
1765. Mais quelque precaution qu'on ait pris a ce sujet, quelque
severite qu'on ait mis dans I'execution de cette Ordonnance, il n'a
jamais ete possible d'engager les habitans, (planters) sur-tout les cul-
tivateurs de cafe, a nourrir leurs esclaves : presque tons leur donnent
le samedi au lieu de nourriture." (Tome i. p. 262.)

From all this it appears that the French Government well knew
that when the slaves are left to raise their own provisions, at least
without very ample time, much occasional and particular distress, fatal
to the health and lives of the slaves, would inevitably follow; more es-
pecially among such of them as were least able to sustain the hardships
of their state — the sickly, the aged, and the feeble in constitution.

28 New Slave Code.

That such has been the ordinary consequences of casting the sub-
sistence of the slaves on their own voluntary industry and prudence,
is no disputed fact in the Anti-Slavery controversy, but is as generally
acknowleged on the one side as asserted on the other. (See Stephen's
Delineation of Slavery, vol. ii, p. 270, and the whole of the 4th
Section of chapter 8, with the authorities there cited.)

What, then, is to be done ? Are the economical advantages of sus-
taining the slaves, where practicable, by indigenous food raised by their
own labour on the master's land, to be renounced? By no means. But
unless a much larger sacrifice of time than has yet been thought of, shall
be made, we concur with the same able writer (Mr. Stephen, see his
Delineation, vol. ii., p. 274,) that the right system in the home fed
Colonies is, that which is in actual and general use in Barbadoes. An
adequate supply of native provisions is there raised by the common
labours of the gang on the master's land, and brought to his stores and
thence distributed to individual slaves ; a plan, however, which need
not and ought not to preclude the allotting to them portions of land,
sufficient to exercise the voluntary industry of all who are strong
enough to improve their condition in that way.

Such was the system partially in use in the French Islands, and
intended to be enforced there by successive ordinances of the Crown,
as well as by various regulations of the local authorities, almost from
the first settlement of those Colonies. By a Royal Ordinance, for
instance, of 1723, the proprietors of estates were required to plant a
sufficient quantity of manioc or cassada for the subsistence of their
slaves. The Governors and Councils seconded, by various orders and
regulations, the intentions of the Crown ; and successive Royal Ordi-
nances imposed serious penalties on every planter transgressing the
rule, and on Colonial officers of the Crown who should concur in its
fraudulent evasion, " But," says the Author of the Annals of the
Sovereign Council of Martinique, " all the precautions that could be
taken have always been useless. The planters know how to elude
the penalties imposed, and never plant the quantity required by the
regulations, though it appears that a duty had been imposed on the
officers of the Crown in the different districts to inspect periodically
the plantations of manioc, and certify their sufficiency," The reason
given is instructive to legislators for Colonies in the West Indies of
whatever nation. " Quel est I'habitant (the planter) qui voudra
servir de denonciateur contre son voisin, son ami ? Le capitaine
commandant du quartier est souvent dans le cas, lui-meme, de la
contravention a I'ordonnance. Ainsi cette visite ne tourneroit qu'en
pure perte, et jamais personne ne seroit puni," (Les Annales, &c.
Tome i, pp, 487, 488.)

Compare the present Order also with the Ordinances of Spain and
Portugal on the same subject. These allow to the slave not only his
fifty-two Sundays, but fifty-two week days, and thirty holidays,
making in all 134 days for his own exclusive purposes, whether of
subsistence or marketing ; more than three times, and even, without
Sunday, more than double the number assigned to him by the present
Order; (see Reporter, vol. ii. Supplement to No, 37, p. 2.53,)

Duration of Labour. 29

It is important also to remark that, in Jamaica, the labour of the
slaves in their provision grounds, even on Sundays, has always to this
hour been more or less compulsory.

XV. Duration of the Labour of the Slave. — §§. XC. — XCVI.

We next come to another new and almost equally important branch
of the subject — the regulation of the duration of the labour
OF the slaves. The following are the rules there laid down, viz. : —

1. No slave shall be compelled or bound to engage in, or perform,
any agricultural or manufacturing labour, before the hour of six in the
morning, or after the hour of six in the evening ; and all slaves, em-
ployed in any such labour, shall be and are hereby declared to be, en-
titled to an entire intermission and cessation of every description of
work and labour from the hour of six in each evening, until the hour
of six in the next succeeding morning. And all slaves so employed
as aforesaid shall be allowed, and are hereby declared to be entitled
to, an entire cessation and intermission of every description of work
and labour from eight till nine in the morning, and from twelve till
two in the afternoon, of each and every day throughout the year ;
provided nevertheless that the hours of intermission of labour in the
case of slaves employed in manufacturing, may be allowed to them at
any other period of the day, if an interval of not less than three, or
more than six hours intervene between such intermissions, and if those
intermissions are of the same duration respectively.

2. No slave under the age of 14, or above the age of 60, and no
female slave known to be pregnant, shall be compelled or required to
perform any agricultural work or labour, during more than six hours
in the whole, in any one day of 24 hours from six in the morning to
six in the next succeeding morning ; and no slave under 14, or above
60, and no pregnant female, shall be employed in any such labour in
the night-time.

3. As it may be necessary, however, at certain periods of the
year, occasionally to employ slaves in certain manufacturing processes
in the night-time, nothing hereinbefore contained is to be construed
to extend to make such night employment illegal, provided that no
such slave shall be required or compelled to labour for more than nine
hours in the whole, on any one day of 24 hours from six in the morn-
ing, to six in the next morning.

4. No slave shall be compelled or required to perform any task-
work, for a greater number of hours in the day than is hereinbefore
authorized.

5. If any owner or manager shall violate or neglect any of these
rules relating to the labour of slaves, or if he shall compel or require
any slave to pick or carry grass, or to perform any other labour in
breach of this Order, he shall, for every such offence, incur a penalty
of not less than 20s. nor more than £10, which penalties shall be as
numerous as the slaves so illegally employed at any one time.

We will not attempt to express all the gratitude we feel for this
enactment on the subject of labour. Though nine hours of field la^

30 New Slave Code.

hour under the blaze of a tropical sun is quite as much as any human
animal should be compelled to endure, nay, it is much more; yetif these
limitations are made effectual, they will do more to abate the cruel
malignity of Colonial Slavery with its average daily toil of fifteen or
sixteen hours, than any or even all of the other mitigations. Though
they will leave to the master nine hours of severe labour in a day,
which is much more than is yielded by free labourers in any other
part of the tropical world, (see vol. ii. No. 27, p. 37, and Stephen's
Delineation,) yet these alone made effectual, we are persuaded, would
put an end to some of the worst and most deathful evils of a system
which, if not wholly extinguished, would still continue, notwithstand-
ing this partial improvement, to be a source of perpetual injustice and
suffering to the slaves, and of guilt to the nation.

XVI. Clothing and Bedding of Slaves. — §§. XCVII. — XCIX.

AND CI.

1. Every owner or manager of slaves shall be bound, in each year,
in the month either of January, or June, to deliver to every slave the
following articles, viz.: — ^To every male slave of the age of 15 years
or upwards, one hat of chip, straw, or felt, or other more durable
material; one cloth jacket; two cotton check shirts; two pair of
Osnaburg trowsers ; two pair of shoes; one blanket; one knife ; and
one razor. To every female slave of the age of 13 and upwards, one
chip or straw hat ; two gowns or wrappers ; two cotton shifts ; two
Osnaburg petticoats; two pairs of shoes ; one blanket; and one pair
of scissars. To every male slave under 15, one hat, one cloth jacket,
one pair of trowsers, and one pair of shoes ; and to every female
slave under 13, one chip or straw hat, one gown, one shift, one petti-
coat, and one pair of shoes ; and for the use of each family in each
year, one saucepan, and one kettle, pot, or cauldron, for the cooking
of provisions.

2. The Protector may authorise the substitution of any other article
of clothing or household utensils for those above enumerated, so as
in his judgment they be equivalent; and all the articles, whether
those enumerated above, or those that may be substituted for them,
shall be of good average mercantile quality.

3. The neglect to comply with these regulations, as to clothing and
furniture, will be visited with a fine equal to twice the value of the
articles withheld, to be applied to the use of the slave injured by such
neglect.

4. Every owner or manager is required to supply each slave with a
wooden or iron bedstead, or with boards so arranged as to enable
every slave to sleep during the night one foot at least above the
ground ; under a fine of five shillings for each neglect in respect
of each and every slave, which fine shall be again incurred from week
to week as long as such neglect shall continue.

XVII. Attendance on Divine Worship. — §§. C. CII. and CIII.
These Clauses provide as follows for the attendance of slaves on

divine worship.

1. It shall be laAvful for every slave of the age of ten years and

Attendance of Slaves on Public Worship. 31

upwards, and such slave is hereby authorized and entitled, on each
and every Sunday, and on Good Friday, and Christmas day, to attend
divine worship in any church or chapel, not more than six miles dis-
tant, and shall, for that purpose, be authorized to resort to any such
church or chapel, provided he be not absent from home more than six
successive hours for that purpose ; and be not so absent before the
hour of five in the morning, or after seven in the evening. And any
owner or manager who, by threats or in any other manner, shall pre-
vent any slave from resorting as aforesaid, or who shall correct or
punish any slave for having so done, shall, in respect of each and every
such slave, incur a separate penalty of not less than £2, nor more
than £10.

2. The above provisions, as to the attendance of slaves at public
worship, shall apply to all churches and chapels belonging to the
churches of England and Scotland, and to all places of worship be-
longing to other religious persuasions the officiating ministers of which
shall have received a license from the Governor or the Secretary of
State; provided that such worship takes place with open doors, and
that no slave shall be entitled to attend at it, between the hours of 7
in the evening and 5 in the morning, except with the express consent
of his owner or manager ; and provided that nothing herein contained
shall be construed to extend to slaves incapable of labour from bodily
indisposition or other causes, or to slaves confined in prison, or to slaves
habitually employed, on other days of the week, as domestic servants.

The chief remark we have to make under this head is, that we are
utterly at a loss to conceive one good reason for the restrictions, in-
troduced into clause C. on the slave's disposal of his Sunday. Hitherto
it has not been usual so to confine him as to the distribution of his
Sunday hours, except in crop time, when the mill was often put
about on a Sunday evening, or sugar boiled ofi" or potted on a Sun-
day morning; or out of crop, when grass was to be gathered on
Sunday night, or his allowances distributed on Sunday morning. There
were no other restrictions ordinarily thought of, except what arose from
the master's encroachments on the legal rights of the slaves, or from
his dislike of religious instruction. The slave might set off on
Saturday, when his work was done, and travel to the distant market ;
and out of crop might spend the whole Sunday in his grounds, or if
he had no grounds, where else he pleased, (when there was no grass col-
lecting) till he appeared at his labour in due time on Monday morning.
Or he might spend the whole of the interval between the close of his
labour on Saturday, and its recommencement on Monday, with his
wife and family, on a plantation moderately distant. No incon-
venience was ever experienced, by the owner or the community, from
this unrestricted license of the slave as to the secular employment of
Sunday, provided only it did not interfere with the owner's illegal
exactions of labour on that day, or with the due cultivation of his
own grounds. Why then should such restrictions on the religious
employment of the Sunday be now introduced ? It is not intended
that the slaves should either draw their allowances on Sunday morning;

32 New Slave Code.

or collect grass for the cattle on Sunday evening* ; or put the mill
about on Sunday night. Why then must they, on their only free day,
be abridged of thfeir enjoyments and fettered down to measuring
their hours and minutes of recreation, or of their opportunities of at-
tendance on Divine worship or Christian instruction ? Why may they
not be allowed to attend the early service of Methodist or Dissenting
chapels, for example, at five or six in the morning, and again at five
Qr six in the evening; and employ the intervals, both themselves and
their children, in the Sunday Schools universally established at such
Methodist and Dissenting places of worship? Of such facilities they
will be deprived by the needless rigour of the present rules. —
Again, why should they be debarred from visiting, as long as they
please, during their own Sundays, their families, relations, and friends,
on distant plantations, or in towns, and spending the whole day in their
society, and attending with them their places of worship? Besides, in
many cases, chapels or churches are not to be found within the pre-
scribed distance of six miles from the slave's home, the nearest being
often at a greater distance. What is he to do in this case? Even in
the small parish of St. Dorothy's, in Jamaica, the parish church is
about ten or twelve miles from parts of the parish; and, in most of
the other parishes of that island, much farther. What then, we say,
is to be done in such cases? To restrain the slave, anxious for Christian
instruction or even for elementary knowledge for himself and children,
from seeking it where he can alone find it, and to tether him thus down
to a given space, and to given hours, without a single provision that
within that given space, and those given hours, he shall find the op-
portunities of knowledge which he desires, is to defeat the purpose of
the enactment, and can be productive of no advantage either to
master or slave. . Such a rule must have originated in that wakeful
solicitude, which the planters have too often manifested, to obstruct
the progress of religious knowledge among their slaves, and to per-
petuate their moral and intellectual depression ; and they must have
mislfed the government by some plausible representations which have
no foundation in fact ; some pretended plea of benefit to the slave
from such unnecessary restrictions ; thus to have succeeded in putting
a drag-chain on negro improvement. We earnestly hope, therefore,
that this clause may be revised vi^ith a view to secure the Sunday free-
dom of the slave, and to enable him to draw from the otherwise
excellent provisions of these clauses, all the good which they are so
well calculated to afford.

XVIII. Medical Attendance on the Slaves. — ^§. CIV. and CV.
By these clauses it is required that every person, owning or
maiiaging forty slaves or more, shall engage, to visit his slaves at least
once i^ fourteen days,* a medical practitioner, who shall keep a journal
of :th'8 health of each gang he attends; in which journal he shall, once
in eaclf fourteen days, record the general state of health of such gang;

* The practice on the larger and well regulated estates, is for the medical
attendant to visit them once or twice in the week.

New Slave Code — Miscellaneous Regulations. 33

and enter the name of each sick slave, specifying such as are dis-
qualified for labour, and prescribing such medicine and diet as may
be proper. A copy of this journal shall be communicated to the
owner or manager, who shall be bound to supply sick slaves with
such medicines or nourishment and to allow them such relaxa-
tions of labour, as may be recommended and prescribed by the prac-
titioner; and every such practitioner is bound, on the Protector's
requisition, to produce to such Protector a copy of such journal ;
and in case of any acute or dangerous disease of any slave, the owner
or manager shall employ, at his own cost, a medical practitioner for
the treatment and cure of the same. Any owner, or manager, or
any medical practitioner, refusing or neglecting to perform any matter
or thing here enjoined, shall, for every such offence, incur a fine of
not less than £2, nor more than £20.

XIX. Miscellaneous Regulations.— (§^. CVI.— CXXI.)

The remaining clauses of this Order have respect to matters of
general and miscellaneous regulation, and need not long detain us.

1. Wilful or fraudulent erasure, interpolation, &c., in any book,
record, or return, required by this Order, is made a misdemeanour.

2. Every misdemeanant shall be liable to a fine of not less than
£10, nor more than £500, or to imprisonment from one to twelve
months, or to both fine and imprisonment.

3. Perjuries committed under this Order shall be punished as the
law of the Colony punishes wilful and corrupt perjury.

4. Fines incurred by Protectors shall be sued for, in the supreme
criminal court of the Colony, by any person lawfully authorized to
prosecute crimes ; and the whole amount of such fines shall accrue to
the king.

5. Fines incurred for offences less than misdemeanours may be
recovered, in a summary way, by the Protectors, before any judge of
the Supreme court, or of the court of Vice-admiralty ; such judges
being armed with all due authority for that purpose which judges
ordinarily possess.

6. Governors are authorized to commit, in remote parts, the exercise
of the jurisdiction given to judges by this act, to subordinate officers
of justice, by whom these powers shall be exercised, and before whom,
or before any judge, the Protector may, at his option, prefer any com-
plaint; the decisions of inferior judges being subject to the review of
the chief civil judge, whose judgment in all cases shall be final.

7. The judges of the supreme court, with the Governor's approba-
tion, shall make, establish, or alter rules of proceeding in all colonial
courts, which rules shall be framed in simple and compendious terms,
and so that the costs shall not exceed twenty shillings in any case.

8. All misdemeanours shall be prosecuted, and all fines not other-
wise directed shall be recovered, in the supreme court of criminal jus-
tice of the Colony, by any person lawfully authorized by the king to
prosecute; and the penalties, in cases not hereinbefore otherwise pro-
vided for, shall go to the king, and shall be applied to defray the
expense attending summonses and other proceedings under this Order.

r

34 Miscellaneous Regulations — Conclusion.

9. All fines are to be recovered, as expressed, in sterling money.

10. The proclamations and orders of the Governor, and the regula-
tions of the judges, shall all be consistent with and not repugnant to
this Order, and shall be transmitted for His Majesty's approval; and
till disallowed shall have the same force and effect as this Order.

11. The Protectors are to make their Reports, half yearly, of all
matters and things they are directed to report upon in this Order ; and
till that is satisfactorily done, the Governor shall not issue to the Pro-
tectors the warrant for their preceding half year's salary ; and such
Reports are to be transmitted by the first opportunity to the Secretary
of State.

12. It is further declared and ordained, (and a most momentous
declaration it is,) that "no law, statute, ordinance, or proclamation,
now or at any time heretofore in force, within any of the said Colonies,
or which shall hereafter by any Governor or Local Legislature of any
such Colony, be made, enacted, ordained, or promulgated, in so far as
the same may, or shall be in any way repugnant to, or inconsistent
with the present Order, shall be binding on His Majesty's subjects
in such Colony, or be of any force, virtue, or effect therein, or shall
be recognized as legal or valid, by any Court, judge, justice, or
magistrate, within such Colony, unless the same shall have been ap-
proved and confirmed by His Majesty with the advice of his Privy
Council." ,

13. The Governor of every Colony shall, within one calendar month
next after the present Order shall he received by him, make known
the same by proclamation in such Colony; and the said Order shall
be in force in fourteen days after the date of such proclamation and
not before; and the Right Hon. Viscount Goderich is to give the ne-
cessary directions herein accordingly.

Having thus given a full view of the various provisions of the new
Slave Code, freely commenting upon them as we proceeded, we shall
now perhaps be expected to express some opinion as to the general
effect of the whole enactment. It is intended more immediately to be
imposed upon the Crown Colonies, in each of which it is to come into
operation within six weeks, at the farthest, after it shall have reached
the hands of the Governor. Its formal adoption as the law of those
Colonies will be a matter of course, as in them the power of legisla-
tion rests wholly with the King in Council. The only point, therefore,
which is matter of doubt respects its due execution when it shall have
become law. This point also, however, rests in a great measure with
the Crown. The Crown may, and alone can, secure its due execution.
Were we to judge, however, by our experience of the past, we
should not be very sanguine in our hopes of its efficiency. We
have hitherto witnessed, in most of the Colonies, much neglect and
misconduct on the part of the public functionaries intrusted by the
Crown with the administration of the slave laws. V/e have indeed seen
iheir misconduct sometimes reprehended by the government, but, in
very few cases, visited with the punishment due to the violation of

Conclusion. 35

their high duties. We may look in succession to the twenty Slave
Colonies belonging to the Crown, and find, in too many of them, that
among those who have been the most effectually opposed to the
benevolent purposes of his Majesty's Government have been the chief
officers of the Crown — the Governors and their Secretaries ; the
Judges and Attorney Generals; the Procureurs General and Fiscals;
the Protectors and the Registrars of slaves ; with almost the whole
body of the local magistracy. With the exception of some of the
Commissioners of Inquiry and a very few Judges and Governors,
they seem to have been animated, throughout the whole extent of
these scattered possessions, by one prevalent purpose to retard, if not
to frustrate, the plans of Government for improving the condition of
the slave population. And, in general, they have pursued this course
with perfect impunity, and in some cases, with favour and reward.
The present Government however, we believe, are fully convinced,
that it is only by a more vigorous system of control and super-
vision, and by an unsparing and relentless infliction, upon public
functionaries, of the just penalties of their neglect or misconduct,
that even the best laws can be made available to the protection of
the wretched slave from oppression and wrong. If the law now
passed were faithfully executed, we cannot doubt that it would
produce very beneficial consequences, and obviate much suffering.
The Government have done much, where we admit it was difficult to
legislate at all; and they have at least reflected honour on themselves
by the humane and beneficent purposes generally manifested through-
out every line of this Ordinance. Even those parts of it which we
have viewed with regret, and on which we have deemed it our
duty freely to animadvert, indicate the very best intentions on the
part of those who framed them, however those intentions may have
been warped or frustrated by the misinformation of interested or
prejudiced parties.

But, if doubts might fairly be entertained as to the effective
operation of this greatly improved Code, even in the Crown colo-
nies; it will not be expected that we should indulge any very
sanguine hope of its efficiency in the colonies that are chartered.
In the first place, what hope is there even of its adoption by any
one of the petty legislatures which crowd the Antilles, and which
exhibit there, each on its little stage, nothing better than a kind
of mock parliament, a puppet-shew representation of the solemn
functions of legislation? Equally absurd and preposterous are the
loud menaces, which issue from the 300 white males of Grenada,
or the 500 white males of St. Vincent's, or even the four or five
thousand white males of Jamaica, of vindicating their right to
oppress the 25,000 black subjects of the King in either island, by
throwing off their allegiance, and daring the might and majesty of
Great Britain. The folly and madness of such conduct in all the
Colonies whether small or great are so manifest and glaring as wholly
to disentitle them to any choice as to the adoption or rejection of laws
which go to secure the well being of the slaves, and to protect them
against the effects of a dominion such as theirs. In truth, the British

36 Conclusion.

iiarliament alone can fulfil this task ; and every day that its interference
is delayed, in the vain hope that just and humane laws will be assented
to and passed by the petty parliaments of the Antilles, will only add to
the embarrassments, and may we not add, to the fearful dangers of the
question.

But^ven supposing that, under the influence of fear, the colonial
legislatures were to adopt this new Code to the very letter, as Lord
Howick, on the 15th of April last, intimated that it was the intention
of his Majesty's Government to require them to do, on pain of
fiscal inflictions ;* there would still remain the same and indeed far
greater difficulties, in the execution of it, than have been found, or
are still apprehended, in the Crown colonies. And what is the con-
clusion to which all this brings us ? It brings us irresistibly to this
conclusion, that slavery is a wholly untractable and unmanageable
subject ; and that there is only one way of applying an effectual
remedy to its multiplied and still unmitigated evils — namely, its
extinction, its total extinction, and the elevation of the slaves to the

* We confess that we have not very clearly understood the course which in
this respect it is intended by the Government to pursue ; but whatever it be, we
cannot anticipate any favourable results which do not involve vexatious delays and
difficulties, endless disputes, and slow and dubious reformation or even ultimate
retractation. In prolonged discussions, on a subject so delicate, which are to be
conducted between the Government and Thirteen Colonial Legislatures, assuming to
be independent, separated from us by the wide Atlantic, and of whose deep rooted
prejudices, and reckless disregard of truth, we have had such frequent proofs ; we can
contemplate nothing but procrastination and disappointment. The means of mis-
representation are so numerous, and the motives to it so potent; the difficulties
of investigation so great, and the scene of it so remote ; that years might be con-
sumed in fruitless controversy without any substantial progress in the work of
reformation. Nor can we discover any benefit which is to be attained by this in-
direct and unsatisfactory method of attaining the object in view, whilst the Govern-
ment, with the aid of Parliament, are themselves constitutionally entitled at once
to reform the legislation of these Colonies, and effectually to control the conduct
of all Colonial functionaries. Is there not something timid and compromising
in admitting the general prevalence of crime in the Colonies, and that the lives of
His Majesty's subjects there are hourly sacrificing by men over whom we possess
a legal control, while our power alone maintains their usurped dominion ; and
yet pursuing such an indirect, circuitous and uncertain course, as instead of im-
mediately placing the happiness and lives of our fellow subjects under the
guardianship of just laws, shall leave them to the tender mercies of those who, by
their past oppressions, have shewn themselves altogether unworthy of the trust ?
Let it be carefully kept in view that the great mass of those, to whom the exe-
cution of this difficult and delicate experiment is proposed to be committed, are
not themselves the proprietors of the slaves, having an interest however remote
in their well-being ; but hireling attorneys, managers and overseers, men nurtured
and hardened amid the practical evils and crimes of slavery, unaccustomed to
control their pride, their passions, and their prejudices, and much more likely to
be incited by these powerful feelings to wreak their spleen and even vengeance
on the unhappy slaves while still in their power, than to be restrained from vio-
lence, by any influence arising from the prospect of the distant benefit which may
accrue to an employer, whom they may never have seen, and in whose prospective
gains they have at least no direct participation. An Act of Parliament, and an
Act of Parliament alone, can terminate all these difficulties, and wipe away froCQ
this land the disgrace and the guilt of such a system.

Instructions of Lord Goderick to Governors of Crown Colonies. 37

possession of their rights as men, and their privileges as subjects of
the British Crown. Nothing short of this will satisfy the British
public ; for nothing short of this can put a period to the miseries of
slavery, or deliver this country from the guilt and the crime of con-
tinuing to uphold it.

II.— INSTRUCTIONS OF LORD GODERICH TO THE GOVER-
NORS OF CROWN COLONIES.

Before we finally quit the subject of the New Slave Code, we must
advert to some parts of the correspondence, to which it has led on the
part of the Government, and which has recently been laid before Par-
liament by His Majesty's command. And in the first place we think it
our duty to express the satisfaction and gratitude with which we have
marked the tone of the circular despatch of Lord Goderich, of the 5th
November, 1831, addressed to the Governors of the Crown Colonies,
and accompanying the New Order in Council on its transmission
thither. It does him very high honour and entitles him to the respect
and confidence of every humane and liberal mind.

" I now enclose," says his Lordship, " for your information copies
of two Orders of the King in Council. Of these, the first revokes the
existing laws for improving the condition of the slaves ; the second
establishes a new code for that purpose. I also transmit copies of
the different representations against this design which have reached
the Council Office and this Department. I trust that the Orders are
sufficiently clear to convey their own meaning distinctly ; nor shall I
attempt to elucidate by any commentary a law which must at last be
carried into effect, not with reference to my views of its meaning,
but according to such interpretations as it may receive from the com-
petent legal tribunals. A task, however, remains for me which I
must not decline, although it will involve a discussion of very un-
usual and inconvenient length, I must explain how far the objec-
tions raised in the accompanying documents to the details of this
Order have prevailed, and what are the motives which, notwithstand-
ing those objections, have been thought to require a steady persever-
ance in the general principles of the law, and in a large proportion of
the enactments contained in the original draft. I engage in this
labour with the less reluctance, because it will afford me an opportu-
nity of canvassing, by anticipation, some of the more considerable
objections which will probably be urged by the resident Proprietors,"

" First, — It has been urged that an inquiry before a Committee of
the House of Lords into the actual condition of the slaves of the British
Colonies, should precede any legislation for the improvement of that
condition. Great ignorance and misconception are said to prevail on
the whole subject, not only amongst the people of this country at
large, but even with the official advisers of His Majesty. Until that
ignorance be dissipated by the information to be laid before the pro-
posed Committee, a moral incapacity for the task they have under-
taken is imputed to the Lords of the Privy Council ; and it is pre-
dicted that increasing knowledge will strengthen or create the convic-

38 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies,

tion, that no safe and judicious measures can originate with any other
authority than that of the legislative bodies, which, under various
appellations, exist in each of the Colonies to which the proposed
Order would apply.

" Whatever weight might be due to these objections, if the scheme
of legislation by Order in Council were for the first time to be tried,
it is obvious that they have now lost much of their original force
or plausibility. The practical question in debate is, not whether
laws for the improvement of Slavery shall emanate from British or
Colonial authorities, but whether the existing Orders of the King in
Council require revision and enlargement.

" The ignorance of the real state of the Colonies which is attributed
to the Lords of the Privy Council in the year 1831, was imputed to
their Lordships, in terms not less peremptory, in the years 1824 and
1830. Since the dates of the Orders promulgated in those years,
the amount of knowledge possessed in Europe on this subject has
certainly not diminished, and may, with reason be supposed to
have been largely augmented. It would be an invidious office to
quote the predictions with which endeavours v/ere made to prevent or
delay the promulgation of the preceding Orders. It cannot be asserted
more confidently now than it was maintained then, that the gross
ignorance of the framers of the law would be detected as soon as an
attempt should be made to enforce obedience to it ; that it would be
found impossible to proceed at all ; or that an entire abandonment of
the estates would be the penalty Avhich the Proprietors would have to
pay for the presumption of the Government. Yet, which of these
forebodings has been verified by the result? The Orders of 1824 and
1830 have encountered no serious difficulty. They have been carried
into full execution, nor have I yet heard of the abandonment of a
single plantation. It cannot, then, be unreasonable to question the
real superiority of that knowledge which, in defiance of this practical
refutation, is still claimed to themselves by the gentlemen connected
with the Colonies ; nor can I think it presumptuous to suppose that
a task, executed with so much success seven years ago, may be
undertaken with still better prospects of a prosperous issue at present,
with the benefit of all those additional lights which have been collected
together during that interval,

"It is assumed, throughout the reasoning of the Remonstrants, that
the Order proceeds upon some vague assumption that the slaves are
labouring under great oppression and wretchedness, or upon the
supposition that the owners are collectively persons in whom it is im-
possible to repose that degree of confidence which is due to all men
who are not actually convicted of crime ; and it is urged that laws
framed under so gross a misapprehension of the real condition of the
slave, and of the real character of his owner, cannot but be pregnant with
injury to both. No representation could be more inaccurate than that
which is thus given of the principles on which His Majesty's Council
proceeded, in the advice which they humbly tendered to the King on
this occasion. The existence of unusual oppression on the one side,
and of extreme wretchedness on the other, was not assumed as really

Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies. 39

true, nor even adverted to as a probable truth, in forming either the
present or the former Orders. The Ministers of the Crown did not
yield themselves to the guidance of any such indefinite assumptions.
They considered the subject in a more distinct and practical method.
In the years 1824 and 1830 a careful review was taken of the Slave
Code as it then existed in the different Colonies. It appeared, at the
former of those periods, that there was not, in any colony, any indivi-
dual at once charged with the duty and armed with the power of
enforcing obedience to the laws made for the protection of the slaves ;
and the Protector, and his Assistants were therefore invested with
that responsibility, and armed with the powers necessary to sustain it.
The existence of Sunday markets being admitted, that abuse was pro-
hibited. In the same manner the use of the whip in the field, as a
stimulus to labour; the punishment of women by flogging ; the power
of convicting and punishing slaves by the domestic authority of the
owner, without a previous or subsequent report to any magistrate ;
the prevalent disuse of marriage, and even the legal incapacity to enter
into that contract without the owner's consent ; the inability of a
slave to acquire property except by sufferance, and his incapacity to
sue or be sued in respect to such property as local usages permitted
him to possess ; the right of the owner to separate at his pleasure the
nearest natural kindred from each other ; the inability of a slave to
purchase his enfranchisement without his owner's consent ; the impos-
sibility of manumitting a slave belonging to infant children or remote
reversioners ; the want of any guarantee to the slave that the money
paid for the purchase of his freedom should not be lost by a defect in
the title of his supposed owner ; the silence or uncertainty of the law
as to what should constitute a legal presumption of freedom or of
slavery; the exclusion or qualified admission of the evidence of slaves;
the want of rules respecting their food, at once specific in their terms
and adequate in their amount ; a similar silence of the law on the
subject of clothing, furniture, medical attendance, and the hours of
labour and repose ; and a general want of cheap and compendious
methods for recovering penalties when the Slave Code had been
violated : — ^These were parts of the Colonial Slave Code, which were
first amended by the authority of the King in Council, to some extent,
in the year 1824. Those amendments, having been consolidated and
further extended in the year 1830, have been completed by the Order
which I now transmit. This state of the law was a matter of fact, of
which the evidence was as readily accessible in England as in the Co-
lonies. Whatever might be the condition of the slaves, and whatever
the conduct of their owners, the necessity for supplying suchdefects and
remedying such abuses in the law as these, was, in the years 1824 and
1830, evident and indisputable. These are precisely the defects and
the abuses against which the former Orders were directed, and which
the present Order proposes to remedy more effectually. It is not,
then, in deference to any vulgar prejudice respecting West India
Slavery, nor is it by substituting vague theory for specific information,
that His Majesty's Government have directed their course. They
have, on the contrary, grappled with specific evils, the existence of

40 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies.

which was generally admitted even by the enemies of the measure,
and which, if denied, might at once have been proved by an appeal
to all the Slave Codes of Colonial origin. How far it is wise to supply
these defects in the law, except on proof of specific evils resulting
from them, is a question to be noticed hereafter. For the present I
confine myself to the remark, that the general charge, of ignorance of
the subject to be handled, may be safely met by this enumeration of
the specific topics of the law ; and by the inquiry — where is the danger
of mistakes being committed in Europe, rather than in the West
Indies, as to the effect of a written code which may be perused with
equal deliberation in either country ?

" In denying that the Government have been floating on the tide
of popular prejudice, or impelled by vague theories, I do not mean
to assert that they have not adverted to those great general princi-
ples by which every wise lawgiver is directed ; on the contrary, it is.
precisely because they have fixed a stedfast eye on those principles,
and because they are accessible alike to all who will take the pains to
study them, that I again repel the charge of ignorance which is so
confidently urged. The Ministers of the Crown are not ignorant that
unrestrained power must and will be abused. They know that an
unpopular law will never be executed by voluntary agency. They are
assured that the natural distinctions of colour and origin, coinciding
with the artificial distinctions of unlimited authority on the one hand,
and absolute subjection on the other, cannot but tend to induce pride,
contempt, and ill usage. They believe that the law which makes one
man the proprietor and another the property, and which delegates, to
the proprietary body, all powers — legislative, judicial, magisterial, and
domestic, cannot but be the fertile source of abuses. In possession
of these and similar principles. His Majesty's Government cannot
suppose themselves so unfitted for the task of legislation as their im^
puted ignorance would imply.

" If it be indeed true that they who have devoted much time, in
England, to the study of this question, are still ignorant of its bearings,
that ignorance must be admitted to be incurable. During the last
■eight years every slave colony belonging to the British Crown has
been agitated with the discussion of these questions. Whatever lights
•could be afforded by local experience, and whatever criticisms could
be supplied by the utmost eagerness of controversy, have been brought
to bear, not merely on the general principles of the Orders of 1824
and 1830, but upon each of their most minute details. Several folio
volumes containing the official correspondence on this subject have
been printed by His Majesty's command, and laid before both Houses
of Parliament. It would be difficult to mention any code, the pro-
mulgation of which was ever preceded and followed by a more severe
scrutiny into its supposed errors and probable consequences. The
Colonists especially have enjoyed the most unlimited opportunity for
explaining their own opinions and illustrating them by evidence. The
reasonings urged and the proofs adduced by the various Councils,
Assemblies, Public Meetings, and Private Disputants, who have par-
ticipated in this controversy, have been printed at the public expense.

Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Croion Colonies. 41

and transmitted, both in their original form, and in the shape of
abstracts and epitomes, to every Member of Parliament, and almost to
every individual who has taken a prominent part in this discussion.
If this protracted debate has failed to convey to- His Majesty's Govern-
ment the necessary information, to whom but the Colonists themselves
can that failure be attributed ? And what is the assignable length of
time within which the requisite amount of knowledge could be brought
together ?

" To the alleged ignorance and consequent incompetency of the
Ministers of the Crown to frame such a law as the present, I have still
another answer to make, to which I find it scarcely possible to anti-
pate a satisfactory reply. It is, that the code denounced as indicating
so absolute a want of knowledge of the state of Colonial Society is,
in substance and principle, the work of the Colonial Legislatures
themselves. I use the terms ' in substance and principle' advisedly,
in order to indicate more exactly the real distinction between the
accompanying Order and those local laws which have suggested all
its principal provisions. No one Legislature ever adopted them all ;
but neither is there any one leading principle which some one or
more of the Legislatures will not be found to have sanctioned. The
Colonial Enactments to which I refer are, however, without a solitary
exception, deficient in those regulations on which the real efficacy of
laws, destined to encounter so much prejudice and opposition, must
altogether depend. To supply such regulations, to infuse a living
and active spirit into a Code which, from the want of them, has been
too much a dead letter, has been the great object of the framers of
this Order. Assuming to themselves the full responsibility for the
wisdom of those rules, they at the same time are willing to give to the
Colonial Legislatures, collectively or separately, the credit of having
suggested or recognised all the principles to which those rules are
subsidiary."

His lordship proceeds to illustrate this statement by a lengthened
induction of particulars, which it would be possible very considerably
to enlarge. They are sufficient, however, for his lordship's purpose.
" They comprise," he observes, " the substance of the whole of the
Order in Council which accompanies this despatch, and will suffi-
ciently verify the general assertion, that no one principle has been
introduced in favour of which the authority of some one or more of
the Colonial Legislatures cannot be cited. Thus then, the imputa-
tion of ignorance, in attempting to mitigate the condition of slaves by
such enactments, is met by an appeal to the example of those from
whom the charge proceeds.

" If it be replied, that the adoption, by so many local legislatures,
of so large a portion of this law, disproves the necessity of resorting
to any other authority than theirs ; the answer is at hand. No one
legislature has adopted them all ; nor have any of those bodies
framed their laws in such a manner as to give any real security for
obedience.

"■ Still, it will be urged, that even if the official advisers of the
Crown possess the information necessary to qualify them for the work

42 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Croum Colonies,

in which they have engaged, the Colonial Legislatures have the same
knowledge, at least in an equal, and probably in a much higher de-
gree, and that, therefore, their claim to be intrusted with the prepara-
tion and original enactment of all improvements in the law of slavery,
is irresistible. With the most perfect respect for the gentlemen who
compose these bodies, I must venture to observe, that an exact know-
ledge of the particular society in which a law is to operate, is not the
only qualification for a legislator. It is not even the highest or the
most important. For so arduous an office, it is still more requisite
that the lawgiver should possess the habit of dealing with large prac-
tical questions, a freedom from local and personal prejudices, an ab-
sence of all such personal interests as could warp his judgment, and
a mind open to the admission of truth in whatever direction it may
come.

" Without supposing men resident in Europe to possess any supe-
rior capacity to persons of equal education and corresponding rank in
life in the Colonies, I cannot think it unreasonable to believe that
they possess in a higher degree the qualifications to which I have
referred. A gentleman who has passed his life on a plantation in the
West Indies, or in the legal tribunals of those colonies, may know
much respecting the state of slavery, of which the most profound
reasoners and the most practical statesmen in Europe are ignorant.
But I cannot admit that this proximity of observation is an infallible,
or even a safe guide to sound conclusions. If the colonists know
much of which others are ignorant, they are also inevitably ignorant
of much which others know. They have few opportunities of study-
ing the progress of public opinion throughout society at large. They
unavoidably live in a contracted circle, which is agitated by petty
feuds and pecuniary embarrassments. In those colonies, neither
learned leisure, nor literary and scientific intercourse, nor even the
more liberal recreations, are commonly to be found. The white in-
habitants regard themselves as living in a temporary exile, and are
looking to a distant country as their home. The members of the
local legislatures are contending for the maintenance of their own
domestic and political authority, for the protection of their supposed
and immediate interests, and in the defence of their collective and
personal reputation. While irritated, not perhaps unreasonably, by
injurious language, they are at the same time alarmed by predictions
of approaching anarchy and ruin. These circumstances have pro-
duced in them precisely the same moral incapacity to legislate on the
subject of slavery, which they would have wrought in the minds of any
other individuals who had been placed in a similar situation. It is
not, therefore, presumptuous or irrational to think that a better slave
Code could be formed in England than in the colonies, — better, not
only for the slaves, but for their owners, — better adapted to the real
exigency of the occasion, — and better suited to avert those desperate
changes which all parties concur in deprecating.

" For these reasons I conclude that there is no adequate ground
for the imputation of ignorance which is advanced against the authors
of this law, and no necessity for deferring its promulgation until an

Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crowii Colonies. 43

inquiry into the real state of West Indian slavery shall have taken
place before the proposed Committee of the House of Peers.

" It is objected that sufficient time has not been aftbrded for as-
certaining the influence and effects of the laws recently promulgated
for the improvement of the condition of the slaves, and that it is pre-
mature to advance to a new experiment, until the success of those
which preceded it has been ascertained.

" As this remark is made rather in reference to the acts of the colo-
nies possessing representative assemblies, than to those of the Crown
colonies, it is the less material to scrutinize its accuracy on the pre-
sent occasion. I must, however, observe, that the several Acts of
Assembly to which this appeal is made, have at least no apparent ten-
dency to accomplish the ultimate extinction of negro slavery ; that
their general tendency is even in the opposite direction ; that they
are replete with unjust and arbitrary rules ; and that unless a suc-
cession of men shall appear ready to devote themselves to obloquy
and unrequited toil, in carrying the remedial provisions of those sta-
tutes into effect, they must remain a dead letter. In proof of these
assertions, I again appeal to the voluminous printed correspondence
of the last eight years.

"■ With reference to the laws promidgated in the Crown colonies, it
is in direct contradiction to the real fact to say that their effects still
remain to be ascertained. I gladly acknowledge that they have pro-
duced many important benefits. But the half-yearly reports of the
Protectors, which exhibit the actual results in the most complete and
circumstantial manner, demonstrate that if much has been done, there
is yet much which, with a view to the effective execution of the law,
remains to be accomplished.

" The time selected for the promulgating of this Order is con-
demned, on account of the excitement which is said to prevail at pre-
sent in the West Indies, and on account of the commercial distresses
by which it is asserted that the planters are driven to despair.

" If, indeed, these feelings are thus prevalent, no one will dispute
that it is the duty of the Government, as far as their power may
extend, to tranquillize those who are agitated, and to animate the
desponding. But these feelings, like all others, must be brought into
subjection to dispassionate reason, unless it is intended that the
affairs of the world shall obey the impulses of every blind and pre-
cipitate passion. If the excitement be that of a very small numerical
minority who may have surrendered their better judgment to the in-
fluence of anger or alarm, I would, with all tenderness and respect,
remind them, that the times in which we are living imperiously call
for the exercise of a more firm and collected temper. But if the
excitement be that of the great mass of the people ; if it be founded
on just grounds and stimulated by the consciousness of their own
powers ; then I can perceive, in such a state of public feeling, con-
clusive reasons for making promptly, and with cheerfulness, those con-
cessions which must be made at last.

'' The existence of severe comnfiercial distress amongst all classes
of society connected with the West Indies is unhappily but too

44 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Croxun Colonies.

evident. Yet what is the just inference from this admitted fact ?
Not, certainly, that the proprietary body should yield themselves to
despair, and thus render the evil incurable ; but rather that we should
deliberately retrace the steps of that policy which has had so disas-
trous an issue. Without denying the concurrence of many causes
towards the result which we all so much deplore, it is obvious that
the great and permanent source of that distress, which almost every
page of the history of the West Indies records, is to be found in the
institution of slavery. It is vain to hope for long continued prosperity
in any country in which the people are not dependent on their own
voluntary industry for their support ; in which labour is not prompted
by legitimate motives, and does not earn its natural reward ; in which
the land and its cultivators are habitually purchased and sold on
credit ; and in which the management of that property is almost in-
variably confided, by an absent proprietary, to resident agents or to
mortgagors who are proprietors only in name. Without presuming
to censure individuals for the share they may have taken in maturing
this system, I cannot but regard the system itself as the perennial
spring of those distresses of which, not at present merely, but during
the whole of the last fifty years, the complaints have been so frequent
and so just. Regarding the present Orders as a measured and cau-
tious, but at the same time a decided, advance towards the ultimate
extinction of slavery, I must, on that account, regard it as tending
to the cure of the pecuniary embarrassments which it is said to en-
hance.

" Much complaint is made of the Order as not referring and adher-
ing to the coiistitution and legal rights of each separate colony,
and as embodying, in a general ordinance, regulations designed for
colonies widely dissimilar in local circumstances, laws, and rural
employments.

" I have no wish to exaggerate or overstate the present argument ;
and will admit unreservedly, that there would be some advantage in
making a distinct code for each separate colony. I must, however,
at the same time maintain, that the disadvantages of that mode of
proceeding would be far more numerous and considerable. At the
present moment, the Order of February, 1830, is in force alike
throughout all the Crown colonies ; and when I compare together the
slave codes which were actually framed by the local authorities, I do
not perceive in them the traces of that accommodation of the law to
their peculiar habits and institutions, which is thus urgently demanded
when the task of legislation is undertaken in this kingdom. On the
contrary, it will be found that the variations between the different
local enactments refer almost entirely to general principles, and not
to local and accidental peculiarities. But the general principles
ought to be very nearly, if not altogether the same, in every colony
where the relation of master and slave is known. The same neces-
sity exists in them all for effective protection ; for repose on Sunday ;
for the regulation of punishment ; for securing to the slaves the rite
of marriage ; for the defence of their property ; for preventing the
separation of families ; for the facility of manumission ; for the ad-

Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies. 45

missibility of slave evidence ; for protection from excessive labour ;
and for an adequate supply of food, clothing, and medical attendance.
This is all which the law enforces ; and these are wants, not local, but
co-extensive with the state of slavery itself.

" Nor is conformity in the slave codes of the different colonies un-
important on other grounds. It renders the execution of the law
more easy and secure. The lights discovered in one colony are
found useful in corresponding exigencies in another. Comparisons
between the progress of improvement in different colonies are readily
and accurately made, and the King's Government in this country
have a distinct view of the system, the execution of which they are
ultimately called to superintend.

" The objection also proceeds on the assumption that sound policy
requires the maintenance, in the British colonies, of codes and institu-
tions so diversified as to forbid the gradual assimilation of their laws.
To that opinion I cannot subscribe ; but must, on the contrary, be-
lieve that it has been a great error, in the colonial policy of this
country, to overlook the expediency of bending local peculiarities to
the general principles of one common legislation ; and I can scarcely
suppose a more fit opportunity than the present for uniting together,
by a general law, settlements which are all parts of the same empire,
and which are all deriving their white population, their language, and
their commercial capital from Great Britain.

" I must not pass over without notice an argument adduced in a
letter addressed to me by Mr. Irving, the member for Bramber, who
professes to act as the agent for some persons in Mauritius. He
maintains that the proposed codes will virtually emancipate the slaves
in the British colonies, and thus stimulate the Foreign slave trade ;
so that, in attempting to do good, the government will in reality be
producing the most serious evil. Where the inference is so mani-
festly untenable, I cannot think it worth while to debate the premises.
If neither the state, nor individuals, are to do justice, without an ab-
solute certainty as to possible consequences which are beyond their
own control, the great rule of right is at an end, and every one may
plead the probable injustice of another in defence of his own delibe-
rate wrong-doing. I can never consent to oppose a temporary and
apparent expediency to those eternal obligations which religion founds
upon the law of God, and which morality derives from an expediency
which is permanent and universal. I will not attempt to prevent the
Foreign slave trade, by refusing justice to the slaves in his Majesty's
dominions.

" It is objected that the enactments of the proposed law are con-
ceived in a harsh tone, and imply such a distrust of the owners as will
deter all men of liberal feelings and reputable character, from under-
taking the office of manager, and that thus the general character of
society will be injured.

" This law, I admit, proceeds throughout on the assumption that
unlimited power will be abused, and, as the practical inference from
that principle, it supposes the necessity of subjecting the authority of
an owner over his slaves to a constant and vigilant control. The

46 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Croivn Colonies.

reproach, if so it must be regarded, is directed, not against individuals,
nor even against any particular body of men, but against that nature
of which all men partake in common. It were idle to legislate at all
on the subject, without adverting to the ordinary motives of human
conduct, and the ordinary influence of the temptation which attends
the possession of power. It might with eq"Ual truth be said, that the
English statute book is a satire on the people of England by their
lawgivers. No magistrate, no hirer of mechanics, no owner of a
cotton mill, is exempted from the reach of that suspicion and distrust
with which the legislature regards those who stand in the superior re-
lations of society. Amongst the objections to the Truck bill, it was
not urged by the master manufacturers that it injuriously ascribed to
them a disposition to advance their own interest at the expence of the
artizans in their employment. I know not why the gentlemen who,
in the subordinate character of agents, exercise a delegated authority
over the slaves, should arrogate to themselves a purity of moral con-
■duct and a superiority to self-interest, to which, under circumstances
of far less temptation, one of the most wealthy, well-educated, and
important classes of society in England, did not venture to lay
claim.

" The sensitiveness of feeling, which, it is said, will indispose
honourable men to act as managers while this law continues in force,
is, I think, not much to be apprehended. Remembering what are the
motives which really attract men across the Atlantic, in quest of such
employment, there is no room to doubt their continued influence. Aw
honest man, who is brought into a situation which justly renders him
obnoxious to suspicion, will rather court than shun the most minute
inspection of his conduct.

" It is then remarked that the law will increase the public burdens of
the Colonies, and that the additional charge cannot be borne.

" I may fairly claim to myself credit for the utmost anxiety to re-
duce the public burdens of the Colonies, since from the moment
of my acceptance of the Seals of this Office, I have been employed
in measures tending to that result, many of which are now in active
operation.

" I trust that the increased expence of a few assistant protectors
will be abundantly provided for by the savings already made, and
which remain to be made, in other departments. But the charges ne-
cessarily incurred for the protection of the slaves are the very first and
the highest of all the claims on the colonial revenue, and in whatever
direction parsimony must be practised, His Majesty's Government
cannot consent to the exercise of it in this.

" Whatever property exists, or has ever existed in the Colonies, is
the direct fruit of the labour of the slaves. That this labour has
never received its due compensation is matter of absolute certainty.
Slaves still bear, and have always borne, a high price in the Colonies.
Why is it that any man finds it worth his while to purchase a labourer?
The answer plainly is, because his labour is worth more than the cost
of the maintenance he is to receive. The price paid is a fair criterion
©f the amount of the wages which have been kept back, and of the

Instructio7is of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies. 47

loss sustained by the labourer. I cannot be a party to so gross an
act of injustice as to refuse the slaves, from the property created
at their expence, "whatever may be required for their adequate pro-
tection.

"The remonstrants, (adopting the language of the Jamaica As-
sembly of 1826,) object to the office of Protector. They denounce
him as a spy : they maintain that the laws are already respected ;
that the introduction of such an officer from a distant country for
such purposes, is an unheard-of anomaly ; that the protectors will
look for reward and praise to the enemies of the Colonies ; that the
most innocent actions will be distorted ; that the cultivation will be
abandoned ; and the slaves rendered valueless.

" To this I can only oppose an answer which has already been re-
peatedly given. I cannot admit that the names of Hhe Colony,' and
' the Colonists,' are justly assumed, by the proprietary body, to the ex-
clusion of the labouring class. At this distance from the scene, the
colony and the colonists may be recognised rather in the myriads of
slaves, than in the hundreds of managers and owners. An unpopular
law, for the execution of which no individual is responsible, is, and
must be, a dead letter. If the anomaly of slavery exists in society,
it must carry other anomalies after it. A spy is a hard word ; but
injurious terms cannot be accepted as proof of misconduct. When
unlimited power is placed in private hands, some one there must be
to see that it is not abused ; and his function is neither more nor less
useful and honourable, because a legislative body gives it an oppro-
brious name. It is easy to say, and I should rejoice to believe, that
the laws are well executed. The contrary is inferred, not from isolated
cases of cruelty, but from the admitted and indisputable facts which
are regularly disclosed in the reports of the various protectors. This
institution is no novelty of the year 1831. It was established
several years ago throughout the crown colonies, and has not hitherto
produced the threatened insubordination, nor any abandonment of
the estates.

" Great objection is made to the power given to the protector to
enter estates and negro huts to communicate with the slaves. It is
described as a vexatious police, and it is remarked that the right i&
not to be exercised at seasonable times only, but at all hours.

" It is not the fault of the legislator that all the advantages of free
institutions cannot be enjoyed in a land of slavery. Anomalies beget
each other. The law has given to one of the king's subjects the right
of confining two or three hundred of his fellow subjects within the
precincts of his estate. I do not dispute the existence, nor would I
impede the exercise, of this right. But is it consistent to complain
that such a property is laid open to an inspection unknown in other
countries ? As to ' seasonable hours,' it is not stated what the expres-
sion means. Is it the hours of the day, or of the night ? In the day,
the protector's visits would be unseasonable, as impeding the labour,
and in the night, as interrupting the repose, of the slaves. Thus the
protector would be kept out of the estate altogether. The law, as
drawn, gives the protector his own choice of the time, because evert

48 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies.

so, his opportunities will be sufficiently few, and because an intercourse
with the slaves, at times fixed beforehand, could afford them little
facility of communication.

" Respecting- inquests on slaves who come by their death suddenly,
it is observed, that no suflicient provision is made for collecting a jury.
I allow that all that is done, and I think that all that could be done,
is, to introduce this part of the law of England, ' as far as local cir-
cumstances may admit.' No one who possesses the slightest know-
ledge of colonial affairs can be ignorant that such legislation is resorted
to constantly in them all, and that the seeming difficulty has been
continually surmounted. But it is added, the human body after death
decays too soon for this purpose in tropical climates ; a fact not to
be disputed, but which, as I think, only shews the additional power
of concealment, and the peculiar need of the best practicable investi-
gation. There is more justice in the remark, that the pecuniary
penalty for not giving notice of the death of a slave, should attach to
free persons only, and the Order has been amended accordingly.
That no inquest is directed to be holden on the body of free persons
is true. The reason is obvious. This is a law exclusively for the pro-
tection of slaves.

" The distillation of rum, it is observed, cannot be suspended on a
Sunday, though even in England the distilleries are worked on that
day. Of course if the process be commenced late in the week, it will
be so. But why should this be ? I cannot venture to deny, that in
this, as in all other cases, some inconvenience and some sacrifice must
be incurred by a resolute adherence to justice.*

" Great complaint is made of the penalties denounced against the
punishment of slaves without a reasonable and adequate cause, and
against punishments more than adequate to the offence. All this is
condemned as ' vague, loose, and contrary to the most approved prin-
ciples of legislation.' Nothing is more obvious than the answer.
What power is so vague, so loose, and so contrary to approved prin-
ciples as that with which the law invests the owner ? He may and
does punish every action and gesture which are opposed to his peculiar
views and notions of duty. The list of crimes of which the punish-
ments are recorded in the Protectors' Reports, are such as no human
legislature ever attempted to define. Amongst them, for example,
are disobedience, insolence, uncleanly habits, indecent language,
quarrelling, and the like. If male slaves are to be whipped, and
females confined in the stocks upon such vague and loose charges, how
can the abuse of such authority be prohibited, except by the use of
terms equally large and indefinite ? Make the power precise, and the
interdict against the abuse may be precise also. In the practical en-

* The truth is, that the objection of the West Indians has no foundation in fact.
Not only is not the distillation of rum continued throughout the week, and not sus-
pended on Svmday ; but it is not continued, in general, for more than from twelve
to fifteen hours each day, being suspended every evening, and again recom-
menced on the following morning. If the objectors maintain the contrary, it is
only a proof of their absolute ignorance of local circumstances.

Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies. 49

forcement of the law, the judge must, of course, have a discretion^
which, in some degree, shall be the counterpart of that with which
the owner is invested."

Among other objections urged by the West Indians to the mode
prescribed in the Order in Council, for provisioning slaves, and ably
replied to by Lord Goderich, is the following.

" Children under the age of fourteen are required not to be worked
more than six hours daily. The remonstrants against this Order state
that children of ten years of age, are capable of working as long at
their employments as adults. I cannot venture to adopt an opinion
of which the practical effect would be to subject children of this ten-
der age, to the existing rule, which requires only eight hours of con-
tinuous repose out of the twenty-four. If, it is added, a child of ten
years be allowed the food of an adult, it is inconsistent to give him
more repose. Every father of a family, every keeper of a school,
and every workhouse keeper, is, I believe, aware that the appetite of
children is mature before their strength, and that a boy will never
attain manly vigour whose natural cravings for food are not satisfied.
For the great work of education also, leisure would be entirely wanting
if such exertions were exacted from the young."

His Lordship thus concludes this truly able and luminous despatch,
and the admonition it conveys to Governors we trust will long vibrate
in their ears.

" I have thus laboriously travelled through both the general and
the specific objections of those who have remonstrated against this
law, from an anxious desire to demonstrate that, on so important an
occasion, the Ministers of the Crown have not proceeded without the
utmost circumspection, and the most exact inquiry. I do not delude
myself by the expectation that the measure will not have to encounter
serious difficulties. But the exigency of the occasion, is such as to
demand from the King's Government, decision and firmness — from
yourself, the utmost exertion of your authority and influence, — and
from all classes of the King's subjects in the colonies, a calm and de-
liberate review of the position in which the great question of Negro
Slavery stands. It would be a fatal illusion to suppose that the pro-
gress of ameliorating measures, tending to the ultimate extinction of
slavery, by cautious and gradual means, can be averted. No man
who has watched the progress of public opinion in Europe, can avoid
this conclusion. It is in no unfriendly spirit, but on the contrary with
feelings of the deepest anxiety for the welfare of the proprietary body,
that I would most earnestly and respectfully urge this fact on their
attention. To embark in a contest upon this subject, of which the
result could not but be unfavourable, and might be most disastrous to
those who should provoke it, would be but to add to the amount of
that distress which no men more freely acknowledge, or more deeply
deplore, than the official advisers of the Crown. It would be difficult
to exaggerate the anxiety I feel to prevent so calamitous a result, and
I persuade myself that it is best avoided by such legislation, as that to
which this despatch refers ; which, on a calm review of the subject,
will, I trust, be found to concede to the slaves nothing more than

50 Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies.

strict justice demands, and to offer to their owners the best practicable
security for the peaceable and quiet enjoyment of their property."

No less vigorous and energetic are the instructions issued by Lord
Goderich, to the Governors of the Crown Colonies, on the 14th Nov.
1831. We lay the following extracts from it before our readers.

" On collating the Order of the 2nd of November, 183-1, with that
of the 2nd of February, 1830, you will perceive that the last Order
has, in some instances, determined absolutely, matters which the pre-
ceding Order refeiTed to the discretion of the Governor. The reasons
which dictated this change of policy may partly be inferred from the
printed Parliamentary Papers, containing the correspondence between
the Governors and this Department, and pointing out the manner in
which the designs of His late Majesty, in the promulgation of the
former law, had, in many respects, been defeated by ill-considered
proclamations, issued under its authority. An additional reason for
withholding, as far as possible, this subordinate power, was the desire
of securing the Governors from solicitations, which it might be alike
necessary and difficult for them to resist. It has been my careful
study to narrow your discretion, and proportionably to diminish your
responsibility, as far as possible, on the present occasion, because
nothing can be at once more painful in itself, or more injurious to the
great object with a view to which the Order has been framed, than
the species of discussion between the Secretary of State and the heads
of the local governments, to which the last Order gave birth.

*' But while thus exempting you from the responsibility of origin-
ating certain subsidiary enactments, it is most remote from my
design to decline, or to depi'eciate, the value of your assistance in
carrying the Order into effect. On the contrary, I regard that as-
sistance as absolutely indispensable to the success of the whole design.
If my despatch of the 5th instant should fail to convince you of the
importance which the Ministers of the Crown attach to the obser-
vance and complete execution of this Order, I have no language which
could adequately convey that impression.

" But I persuade myself that there is no serious danger of my being
misunderstood on this occasion. It is in the spirit of the most perfect
respect for your person, and of reliance on your judgment, that I
acquaint you that His Majesty will expect from, the Governors of all
His Colonies, not a mere acquiescence in the provisions of this Order,
but a zealous, energetic, and persevering effort to carry it into com-
plete effect; and to surmount those difficulties of which, in my des-
patch of the 5th instant, I have avowed my full anticipation. I will
not contemplate what I trust may be esteemed the most improbable
contingency of any Governor adopting a contrary course, and yield-
ing himself to those panics and discontents which it is his first duty
to allay ; for I could scarcely advert to that topic without using the
language of warning in a manner which might, if not properly under-
stood, be supposed to imply an undue distrust.

" The 40th Clause of the Order has delegated to you the regula-
tion of the punishments which are to be inflicted on females in substitu-
tion for the punishment of the whip. I cannot but direct your most
careful attention to the manner in which this power shall be exercised »

Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Crown Colonies, 51

It has been stated in an official report from the Protector of slaves at
St. Lucia, and in other ways, that the punishments to which women
have been subjected since the promulgation of the law of February,
1830, have been even more cruel and more degrading than those
from which it rescued them. The field stocks are especially mentioned
as instruments of torture, such as, in Europe, the vilest criminals are
no longer permitted to undergo. Whatever may be the accuracy of
these statements, they at least suggest a caution of the highest import-
ance. They point out the possibility of a very gross abuse, the re-
sponsibility for which would rest altogether with the Governor who
had authorised the use of such modes of punishment. In the procla-
mation which it may be your duty to issue on this subject, you will
most exactly bear in mind the injunction contained in the 40th Clause
of the Order which requires you to ' prescribe with all practicable pre-
' cision the nature and extent of the punishments to be substituted
' for the punishment of whipping in the case of female slaves, and to
* make all such rules and regulations as may be necessary for pre-
' venting and punishing any abuses in the infliction of such substi-
' tuted punishments.'

" In carrying these powers into effect, it will be fit that no punish-
ment subjecting women to direct bodily pain should be sanctioned,
except as a last resource in cases of contumacious resistance to lawful
authority; or in cases where the offence may be such as to imply
unusual moral debasement on the part of the offender. For the
crimes of insolence, neglect of work, disobedience to orders, late-
nsss in coming to work, abusive language, violence of demeanour,
and many others of the domestic offences which fill the catalogue of a
Protector's half yearly return, personal chastisement by confinement in
the stocks is scarcely a more inappropriate punishment than the whip
itself. In these cases inflictions must be resorted to, which suppose
the existence of the sense of shame, and which may operate rather on
the mind than the body of the sufferer ; or, if bodily privations be
necessary, they may be found in some temporary change of diet, or
in some privation of the personal freedom of the offender, during her
hours of intermission from labour. The stocks, if it be really neces-
sary to resort to them at all, must be reserved for the graver offences
of drunkenness, marooning, and similar delinquencies, which indicate
a character more than usually reckless of the opinion of those with
whom the offender associates. Even in such cases, you will not per-
mit the employment of stocks as an instrument of punishment, with-
out a most minute regulation of their shape and size, and of the dura-
tion of the punishment, and of the intervals which must elapse
between successive punishments. For example, there should be a
model for the stocks to be used, which model should be carefully in-
spected and approved by yourself, the Chief Justice, and the Protec-
tor of Slaves ; and every deviation from that model, on the side of
increased severity, should be declared unauthorized and punished as
illegal.

" It is not without a full sense of the difficulty of the task I thus
impose on you that I issue these instructions ; and I. am fully prepared
for the answer with which I am already so famiHar, that such distinc-

SI Instructions of Lord Goderich to Governors of Croivn Colonies.

tions as these are the growth of mere theory, and would never be
regarded as either important or practicable by any one who had a
personal acquaintance with Slavery as it actually exists in the British
Colonies. I must, therefore, say by anticipation, that neither the
difficulty nor the supposed vmfitness of this undertaking will be ac-
cepted by His Majesty's Government as an apology for declining it.
They strictly require that the attempt thus to regulate the personal
punishment of women by the domestic authority of their owners should
be made, and that the result of that experiment should be fully and
fairly ascertained. It will be time enough to abandon the enterprise
as hopeless, when some sufficient practical proof shall be brought in
j^id of the theories (for such they are), which suppose it impossible
that women, in a state of slavery, should be kept in proper discipline
by more gentle methods than those of the whip and the stocks."

In commenting on §. C, which authorizes the attendance of slaves at
all places of public worship, with certain restrictions as to hours and
distances, his Lordship well observes, that though all religious teachers,
not clergymen of the Established Church, must have a licence from
the Secretary of State, or from the Governor ; yet that the latter can-
not too distinctly remember that " for the conversion of persons who
must unhappily be numbered amongst heathens, an ardent zeal for the
diffusion of Christian knowledge is the first and all essential requisite ;
and that very many exemplary clergymen may be deficient in those
popular arts, by which in religion, as in other subjects, uncultivated
minds are most powerfully affected." "Your duty, therefore," he
adds, " will be to encourage as much as possible those religious
teachers in whose good sense and sobriety of mind you can
place the greatest confidence, and not to refuse your licence to any
man of honest intentions and decorous conduct whom the slaves
themselves may be disposed to receive as a teacher. I confidently
anticipate your concurrence in the opinion, that much as the extension
of that Church of which we are both members is to be desired, the
propagation of Christian knowledge, under any form of church go-
vernment, or with whatever infusion of error in subordinate questions,
is incomparably to be preferred to that state of heathen darkness in
•which the slaves in our Colonies have for so long a course of years
been permitted to live."

The last clause of the Order directs its promulgation within one
month after it shall have been received; and, in fourteen days
from that time it is to be in force in the Colony. " It has been
deemed right," says his lordship, " that, on so important an occasion
as the present, you should be released from all responsibility by being
refused all discretion as to the time of promulgating this law. The
rule has been laid down in terms thus pereniptory, not of course
from any distrust of the Governors of His Majesty's Colonies, but
from the conviction that if any choice had been left to them, as to the
promulgation or suspension of this Order, they would have been as-
sailed with solicitations to which it might have been most difficult,
if not indeed impossible, for them to make an effectual resistance."

■ We of course do not wish to be vinderstood as concurring abso-

Conclusion. 53

lutely with Lord Goderich in every argument and every expression he
has employed. Neither his Lordship, nor our readers generally, can
have so misapprehended the uniform tenor of our opinions, on the
subjects which are treated with such eminent ability and moderation
in the Despatch before us, or the principles which we consider as
supremely worthy of recognition and adoption in the final adjustment
of the great question at issue. — And if, in the examination of specific
measures of reform, we do not always interrupt the course of our ob-
servations by a reference to those grand and fundamental maxims of
justice, and constitutional law, and Christian morality, which are para-
mount to all other considerations, it is because, that with readers of
intelligence who have accompanied us in our labours during the last
eight years, it cannot be necessary, and would therefore be in bad
taste, to be continually reminding them that we hold the slavery, ex-
isting under British dominion, to be a source of guilt and of crime,
a system of injustice and inhumanity, as well as inherent impolicy,
which can only be effectually divested of evil by its utter extinction.
There is, we admit, something painfully humiliating in being forced to
argue the main question, or even its details, on any other than the;
high ground of moral principle. With a very slight accommodation
we might apply to this entire controversy the noble language employed
by Lord Goderich in his admirable reply to the miserable sophistry of
Mr. Irving, the member for Bramber. (See above, p. 45.) " I can
never consent to oppose a temporary and apparent expediency to those
eternal obligations which religion founds upon the law of God, and
which morality derives from an expediency which is permanent and
universal." — ^These are sentiments worthy of their author, and which
we should be glad henceforward, in the prosecution of our labours,
to adopt as the motto of the Anti-Slavery Reporter.

The full and final settlement of the question must probably be
reserved for the time when the now all-absorbing subject of reform
shall no longer occupy the attention of Parliament.

in. Jabiaica. — Recent Intelligence.

It was our intention to have inserted the substance of some official
statements respecting the legislation of Jamaica, contained in the same
" Papers by Command," which have already supplied us with so many
invaluable extracts, but our usual space has been so far exceeded that
we must defer our purpose for the present ; and must content our-
selves with laying before our readers a few detached articles of intelli-
gence from that important island.

1. One of the first fruits of the recent emancipation of the free
blacks and coloured inhabitants of Jamaica, from the civil and poli-
tical disabilities under which they had groaned so long, has been the
return, on the occurrence of two vacancies in the House of Assembly,
of two gentlemen of colour, namely, Mr. Price Watkis, a barrister, for
the city of Kingston, and Mr. Manderson, for the popvilous and
wealthy parish of St. James. The first vote given by Mr. Watkis was
in support of an unsuccessful motion to adopt a compulsory manu-

54 Jamaica ; Coloured Members of Assembly ; Question of Siavery.

mission law for that island. He stood in a small minority, it is true ;
but the battle of freedom has been commenced in the very strongest
hold of slavery ; and its final triumph cannot be doubted.

2. Another circumstance which leads to the same cheering antici-
pation is, that on this occasion, the mover of the proposition, Mr.
Beaumont, had hitherto been long known, chiefly as one of the
fiercest, and most relentless opponents of every attempt to reform
the vicious system of slavery prevailing in Jamaica. The es^ent alone
can shew whether his conversion is partial or universal, and whether
his new career is founded in principle, or in a timid and temporising
policy. Mr. Beaumont is sufficiently acute to perceive that unless
something be done to abate, in the eyes of the British public, the
malignity of the system he has till now so vigorously defended, it
must speedily be destroyed root and branch ; and if he should suc-
ceed in exciting such a hope, he may, by the well-timed and not very
costly sacrifice of one or two of the limbs obtain a respite for the whole
trunk. On this ground, it may be that he has proposed his compulsory
manumission bill, and signified his further intention of moving for the
abolition of female flogging. He probably well knows that he will carry
neither of these measures. Indeed, in the first, he has already been
signally defeated by a majority of 30 to 2. He still, doubtless, hopes
for some effect on the British mind, even from the proposal of it ; and
to that effect he perhaps mainly looks as thei'eward of his abortive effort.
We must infer thus much from his having chosen to state at length, in
a paper which the last packet has conveyed to this country, and which
has been largely circulated among those who are interested in the
question, his reasons for this proceeding. Many of these reasons, we ad-
mit, are conclusive. — They are borrowed from our pages — but they all
seem to derive their force, as respects the Jamaicans, whom alone he
professes to address, from the consideration that unless they will
adopt his two measures, and thus soften the animosity of the aboli-
tionists, it will be impossible to avert the interference of the mother
country, and the consequent destruction of the whole slave system.
We hail this as a good symptom of our progress, though not quite in
Mr. Beaumont's sense, and we therefore congratulate our friends upon
it. But let us not overrate its value, or be deluded by it into a fatal
security and inaction.

3. We have frequently alluded to the insolent tone adopted, by the
handful of planters in Jamaica and other slave colonies, on the sub-
ject of slavery. In the House of Assembly, in the month of November
last, Mr. Lynch, one of the members of it, speaking of the intentions
of Government with respect to slavery, as indicated by Lord Howick's
speech in the House of Commons on the 15th April, 1831, said :
■"Our watchword at present ought not to be ' conciliation,' but ' resis-
tance.' " On these words the Jamaica Watchman, the organ of the
free black and coloured classes, on the 9th Nov. thus comments : —
" Mere sober-thinking men are inclined to transpose the expressions,
and say, ' not resistance, but conciliation.' And in this opinion
every man will join who has calmly and dispassionately considered the
5ubject in connection with our subjection to the parent Government.

Jamaica — Renunciation of Allegiance. 55

When to resist is seriously recommended, the first and most natural
inquiry is, ' Can we do so ; can we do so successfully? ' And when this
inquiry is made, it must be evident that the idea of resisting the mo-
ther country is one of those absurd, ridiculous, and childish recom-
mendations which none but a fool or a madman could for a moment
seriously entertain. ' But,' say some, ' we use such language, not
with any intention of proceeding to extremities, but for the purpose of
intimidating His Majesty's Government.' We reply, such means can
never produce the expected result ; and to suppose that the clamour
of the Jamaica legislature will have that effect, is just about as ridi-
culous as the idea of resistance to the overwhelming power of Great
Britain.

" But it is not the power of Great Britain alone that renders this
idea preposterous." . . " Our peculiar situation must be regarded as
the best guarantee that can be offered for our dutiful submission.
Will Mr. Lynch and the other members who talk about throwing off
their allegiance, and seeking protection elsewhere, consider for one
moment the situation in which they stand, and the absolute impossi-
bility of succeeding in such an attempt. Have we not in the island
British troops to a large number, officered by men Avhose valour and
whose devotion to their sovereign are undoubted ? Are there not on
this station and often in our ports those wooden walls that are a terror
to our enemies ? In whose keeping are our forts and batteries ? And
do not British troops occupy every stronghold on the island ? But
this is not all. Are the free inhabitants unanimous in their opinion of
resistance ? Mr. Lynch knows as well as we do that they are not.
He is well aware that numbers of his own (white) class are decidedly
opposed to such a wild scheme. He must know that the free coloured
body generally will be found adding their number to the supporters of
the British Crown in the island, and opposing themselves to all who
Avould offer resistance to the Government, Nor is even this all : there
is another class, whose physical superiority must render them fearful
in the eyes of those who would take ' resistance ' for their ' watch-
word.' And we ask Mr. Lynch how he would dispose of them, in the
event of a rupture with Great Britain, knowing, as they will know,
that a desire to ameliorate their condition is the only cause which
has led to such a state ? Does he or does any man suppose that they
will calmly sit down, indifferent spectators of a struggle, in which
they, so much more than others, are immediately and deeply interested,
and which is either to brighten their hopes of liberation from a de-
f^rading and brutalising system, or to doom them to cheerless and inter-
minable bondage ? Reason, common sense, and a knowledge of
their character, say No ! and dangerous indeed will be the state of
those who, in the face of such a mass of evidence as to the m.adness
of resisting the recommendations of Government, would take ' resis-
tance ' for their ' watchword.'

" If then resistance, as we have shewn, cannot be offered with the
slightest chance of success ; if circumstances conspire to favour the
benevolent intentions of the parent Government with regard to our
degraded and demoralised fellow-men and fellow-subjects, is it not

56 Cape of Good Hope — Free Labour.

wisdom, nay prudence to conciliate ? " . . "That slavery must shortly
cease in the British colonies is a fact now too well known and too ge-
nerally admitted to require being proved. As this is the case, and
terms have been entered into by those most deeply interested in the
speedy and final termination of slavery ; as religion and humanity
demand, at the hands of the British public and the white colonists, that
measure of long delayed justice to the suffering sons of Africa ; as
the ties of blood claim, from our numerous freed population, strenuous
exertions in behalf of their parent races ; and as the general safety
and welfare depend on the content and quiet of those for whom we
plead ; then is it to be hoped that nothing more will be heard about
resistance, and that the legislature will show that better part of va-
lour— discretion, and will recognise, in conciliation, their only safety
from impending danger."

One word more. — " Attempts have been made to shew an analogy
between our differences with the mother country and those of the
United States." " The real causes of the American revolution were
taxation without representation." " What is the real nature of our
controversy with Great Britain ?" She requires us to do away with a
system founded on error, injustice, and oppression ; a system that
brutalises the mind both of master and slave, and which degrades man
to the level of the brute. It is this system which, ere it be too late,
and while we yet have the power, the mother country calls upon us to
amend."

IV. Cape of Good Hope. — Free Labour.

In the South African Commercial Advertiser of the 9th of Feb.
1831, we find the following gratifying intelligence : —

A gentleman, (Mr. Chase) a friend of slavery, asks this question : —
" Have the friends of immediate emancipation marked the conduct
of the prize negroes in this colony who have suddenly acquired
liberty V The answer to this question is promptly given as follows :
" We speak advisedly : — three thousand Prize Negroes have re-
ceived their Freedom, 400 in one day ; but not the least difficulty
or disorder occurred : — servants found masters — masters hired ser-
vants; all gained homes, and at night scarcely an idler was to be seen.
In the last month, 150 were liberated under precisely similar circum-
stances, and with the same result. These facts are within our own
observation ; and to state that sudden and abrupt emancipation would
create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, is not reason;
but the plea of any and all men who are adverse to emancipation."

To this it is added that to these events the writer makes his appeal,
and that they must be deemed satisfactory, until Mr. Chase " shall
have produced facts to establish the charge against the Prize Negroes,
so strongly implied in the above quotation. Mr. Chase is respect-
fully challenged to produce such facts."

No reply had appeared in any subsequent journal ; and as the con-
troversy was proceeding actively, we conclude that none could be
given.

S. Bagster, Junr,, Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close, London-

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 93.] For FEBRUARY, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 2.

I.— NEW SLAVE CODE OF JAMAICA, 1831.

II.— FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE EFFECT OF SLAVERY
ON MORALS AND MANNERS IN JAMAICA, DRAWN FROM
THE PERIODICAL PRESS OF THAT ISLAND.

I. — New Slave Code of Jamaica.

In our last number, p. 53, we briefly adverted to some papers re-
cently laid before Parliament, containing the latest edition of the
Jamaica Slave Code, and therefore, the latest specimen of Jamaica
justice, humanity, and civilization. It bears the date of Febru-
ary 19, 1831, and furnishes therefore a very satisfactory test of the
actual fitness of the planters, in that first and greatest of our Slave
Colonies, for the task of legislating for their bondmen. The law, as a
whole, we hesitate not to say in the outset, will be found to be a most
barbarous enactment, far more worthy of Tunis or Algiers, than of a
community calling itself British. Nevertheless, we hardly can regret
that during the interval, (the brief interval we trust,) which may elapse
before slavery itself shall be extinguished, or at least before the pledge
given by his Majesty's Government, on the 15th of April, 1831, of the
substitution of a new and better Code of their own shall have been
fulfilled, that this Jamaica act should be " left to its operation ;"
were it only, that the world may see what actually are the laws which,
in 1831, a body of British Slave holders, after eight years of delibera-
tion, should have produced, as the ne plus ultra of legislative wisdom,
for the government and protection of their 330,000 slaves.

In the former volumes of our work, we have treated largely of the
Slave Laws of Jamaica, and have exposed the whole system of fraud
and falsehood on which their pretended ameliorations have proceeded,
as well as the gross misrepresentations by which the West India Com-
mittee at home, and the Elite of forty-one West India Planters and
Merchants, have endeavoured to hide, from the public view, their real
enormity. For this exposure, we beg to refer to Vol. i. No. 21,
p. 298—308 ; Vol. ii. No. 29, p. 102—111 ; No. 33, p. 177—182;
No. 38, p. 261—269; No. 43, p. 341—345; Vol. iii. No. 60, p.
193 — 206 ; and Vol. iv. No. 82 ; and we are entitled to assume the
statements there made to be unanswerable, because after the lapse
of so long a time, not a single attempt has been made to disprove any
one of them ; — even any one of those direct and specific charges of
imposition on the public which we have openly, and unreservedly,
and repeatedly, preferred against the framers and vindicators of these
enactments.

Now, however, we have a new law of the Jamaica legislature laid

I

5B New Slave Code of Jamaica.

before us, a law bearing the date of 1831 , and which is accompanied
by a renewed claim on the pan of that body on the public approbation
for the enlightened humanity of its provisions. But after perusing it
with the utmost attention, we can discover in it no ground of
preference to the former disallowed enactments, with one single excep-
tion, and that of a negative kind ; namely, that certain clauses, intro-
duced into the former acts, legalizing religious persecution, have been
omitted in this ; —omitted, however, not from choice — not from growing
liberality of sentiment — not from any conviction of their radical ini-
quity ; but from stern compulsion. The legislators of Jamaica have
been forced, actually driven as with their own cart-whip, after an obsti-
nate and protracted but vain struggle, to omit these outrageous
clauses, though to part with them has seemed like rending their heart-
strings. They clung to the fire and the faggot principle with the fero-
cious zeal of inquisitors, and only let it go when to retain it had be-
come utterly hopeless.

But in leaving this Act to its operation for a time, (we renew the hope
that it is but for a brief time,) it is plain that the Government are far
from viewing it with a complacent eye. On the contrary, Lord
Goderich indicates, in terms not to be mistaken, his deep dissatisfac-
tion with its provisions. In his despatch of the 16th of June, 1831,
he not only adopts and makes his own all the strong censures cast
upon the slave legislation of Jamaica by former Secretaries of State,
and especially by Mr. Huskisson,but adds some valuable supplemental
animadversions, chiefly on the variations between the present law and
the disallowed act of 1826, on which Mr. Huskisson had so ably com-
mented. To these animadversions we shall now briefly advert.

1. A slight change in the terms of the law about the marriage of
slaves, (§ 4.) a law which seems purposely framed to prevent, rather
than to encourage their entering into that state, calls forth, in addition
to the remarks of Mr. Huskisson, (vol. iii. No. 60, p. 195.) a cautiori
against using expressions calculated to "restrain the exercise of a
right, which more than any other, must be considered as belonging
alike to every class of human society, be their civil condition what it
may." (Papers by command, of the 6th December, 1831, p. 55.)

2. In the disallowed act of 1826, the legislature of Jamaica had
introduced a clause (§ 12.) to oblige masters, under a penalty of 501.
to afford good and ample provision to their slaves, and another clause
(§ 14.) imposing a penalty of lOOZ. on masters neglecting to give in,
yearly, an account of the clothing supplied to them. — These penalties,
it was probably hoped , might prove a bait to induce Government to
pass the persecuting clauses ; for in the Act of 1831, finding that these
must be abandoned, they have taken care to reduce the penalties
from 50 and 1001. respectively, to a sum not exceeding 201., thus
making the penalty merely nominal ; and they have actually taken
away all penalty in the case of persons failing to make the required
I'eturns of the time allowed to the Slaves for cultivating their grounds.

3. Proceeding, probably, on the same principle of bargain or barter,
a clause had been introduced into the Act of 1826, (^ 12.) fixing the

weekly allowance in money to be made to-the slave, in lieu of food,

New Slave Code of Jamaica. 59

at 3s. Ad. currency for each slave ; but in the Act of 1831, this pro-
vision is wholly omitted. (Ibid, p. 55.)

4. By turning to our third volume, No. 60, p. 201, and our fourth
volume, No. 82, p. 309, our readers will see the nature of the de-
ception practised by the legislators of Jamaica of that day, and
upheld by the West India Committee, and a select body of forty-one
planters and merchants, in their respective manifestoes, wherein they
represent clause 16 of the Act of 1826, as ha,ving conveyed to the
slaves " a right of property and of action." But in the Act of 1831,
even the slight semblance of protection given to the slave's property
by the former act is withdrawn. By that act a penalty of lOZ., over
and above the value of the property of which a slave might be robbed,
or unlawfully deprived, was imposed on the person robbing him. But
in this, the penalty is limited to the precise value of the property so
robbed, while it expressly takes from the slave, and vests exclusively
in his owner, all right, whether in law or equity, to sue for the recovery
of any such plundered property. (Act of 1831, § 14.) " This part of
the law," LordG. justly observes, " is altered considerably to the slave's
disadvantage, and when the owner himself is the wrong-doer the slave
is left without any remedy." (Papers by command, &c. p. 5^.)

Such is the Jamaica mode of conferring on the slaves, " a right of
property and of action !" What say the West Indian Committee, and
the West Indian Elite of forty-one to this view of the case ? Here
indeed, we have what they call a law for giving to the slaves "a right
of proijerty , and a right of action^'' every word of which seems
deliberately contrived to withhold from the slave any such right ; at
the very moment too that they are assuring the people and parliament
of England that they have conveyed it to him.

5. We have before exposed the evasive nature of that pretended
amelioration, in former Jamaica Acts, by which, while executors were
not " required," but merely " authorized" to pay bequests made to
slaves, the slave legatee was expressly debarred from all action, or
suit, at law or in equity, for the recovery of such bequest. Ashamed,
it would seem, of this barefaced mockery, the Assembly, in the Act of
1831, have added a proviso, which is farther illustrative of their grand
principle of legislation, namely evasion. It is this, " Provided
always that the owner of such slave may institute any such suit or
suits as he may conceive necessary for such slave's benefit, giving se-
curity for costs." (Act of 1831, § 15.) Lord Goderich, it is true,
expresses something like satisfaction even at this slight modification of
the former iniquitous law ;

" But," he adds, " as the owner must sue in his own name, there can be
no redress against himself, should he be the executor withholding the legacy."
" The obUgation of giving a security for costs, will, I should fear, deter most
owners from engaging in such a litigation, especially as the legacy must be reco-
vered, if at all, in the Court of Chancery. Neither can I perceive the justice of
subjecting slaves to an onerous condition of this nature, from which other suitors
are exempt. A slave must usually be a pauper ; and, therefore, according to the
usual habits of Courts of Justice, is rather entitled to peculiar indulgence than
liahle to more than ordinary rigour."

6. " I observe, with concern," his Lordship proceeds, " a change in the Ian*

60 New Slave Code of Jamaica.

guage of the seventeenth section, which, in 1826, exempted the mothers of six
living children ' from all hard labour in the. field or otherwise.' They are now
exempted merely from 'hard labour:' — an expression less humane, in propor-
tion as it is less definite, than the former."

If a practical illustration of the working of this apparently humane
law be desired, it may be found in our Fourth Volume, No. 89, p. 468.
But in truth, the law, which first appeared soon after the agitation
of the slave question, in 1787, has stood a dead letter in the Jamaica
statute book, being obviously designed to blind the eyes of the British
public, but having no practical operation in Jamaica itself. To be
convinced of this let Government call for the result of all this parade
of legislation; let them call for the amount of public taxes remitted,
since its first enactment, on account of these " mothers of six living
children," andwe take upon us to predict that they will find it to be nil.

7. His Lordship goes on to remark, " The 26th clause of the act of 1826, sub-
jected persons compelling their slaves to work in the prohibited hours to a penalty
of 50/. It is now provided that the penalty shall ?iot exceed 501. The minimum
of punishment, in a case of very grave importance, is thus left indeterminate."

8. Again, "The former statute declared that 'for the future all slaves in the
island, should be allowed the usual number of holidays that were allowed at the
usual seasons of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide.' It is now enacted that
lliey shall be allowed the holidays of Christmas and Easter ; thus the three
annual holidays are reduced to two, and the slave is deprived of the security
formerly given to him, that he should enjoy 'the usual number' of such days."

This again is probably done, as we have already ventured to sur-
mise of other clauses, on the ground of indemnifying themselves for
the cruel necessity of excluding from the Act the persecuting clauses
against Methodists and Dissenters.

9. The subjects of qualified approbation, to which the Secretary of
State, with his usual candour, has adverted, seem to us to throw rather
a lurid than a very cheering light on the whole subject of the slavery
of Jamaica. One is, that a price is no longer put on the head of
slaves in rebellion. Another is that Magistrates shall take cognizance of
the fact of branding slaves. A third, that in one or two cases the
maximu7n of penalty on the master, for ill treating his slave, is raised
from 10/. to 101. ; and that, in a few other cases, the punishments to be
inflicted by the Magistrate instead of being left indefinite are defined.
Lastly, a workhouse keeper is prohibited from flogging slaves on a
mere verbal order (it must now be a written order) of the owner ! —
Such are nearly all the positive ameliorations of this vaunted law, the
fruit of so much deliberation, and the occasion of so much angry
controversy !

10. " I cannot pass the subject of the Workhouse," observes Lord
Goderich, " without expressing my decided opinion that no Pro-
prietor of Slaves should be permitted to impart an authority, in any
form whatever, to public officers, to inflict punisliment in gaol, or by
personal chastisement. The prisons of the island should be regarded
as exclusively public property ; and the gaolers as officers intrusted
with none but public duties." — But if this be the decided judgment of
his Lordship, why is it that the acknowledged abuse is permitted to
continue for a single day ?

11. The former law of 1826 had restricted the use of chains, collarSj

New Slave Code of Jamaica. Gl

&c., to a light collar without hooks, which should only be put on by
direction of a magistrate. The act of 1831 is more liberal, and permits
the magistrate to connect the light collars, riveted round the necks of
two or more slaves, with each other by a light chain, so that a whole
gang may be thus chained together by the neck while at their work ;
for such is the effect of a few new words insidiously introduced into
clause 39.

" Against this change," observes Lord Goderich, " it is my duty to make a dis-
tinct protest. The use of chains for the punishment of slaves in such a manner
as to confine two or more together, is a practice to be condemned, not only as
tending to inflict unnecessary pain, but as subjecting the wearers of such in-
struments to degradation. In all legislation on the subject of Slavery, it is
impossible to bear too fully in mind the principle that the slaves should be taught
to cherish self respect, in order that they may become more entitled to the respect
of others, and better qualified to assume a higher station in the scale of society."

12. Lord Goderich goes on to remark: —

" The provisions which have been introduced respecting tickets to be given to
slaves, who may be hired out for more than three months, invite and even require
the remark, that if the slave should violate the law, at the bidding of his master,
it is unjust that he should be punished by the magistrate ; because, by disobe-
dience, he would incur a domestic punishment.

13. "I must further object to the new clause which requires that security for
costs shall be given before a writ ' de homine replegiando," can issue. I cannot
understand why the Plaintiff, in an action for asserting his freedom, should be
exposed to a difficulty with which no other suitor has to contend."

Those who are acquainted with the course of the present contro-
versy, will remember how much the Assembly of Jamaica took credit
for extraordinary liberality, in affording, to an alleged slave, an op-
portunity of proving his freedom by means of the process called
Homine Replegiando. The path to freedom by this process was of
itself sufficiently arduous ; but even of the slight facility which it
afforded to persons unjustly held in slavery to vindicate their free-
dom, the legislators of Jamaica seem to have become impatient.
They have therefore introduced into the present Act the clause
adverted to by Lord Goderich, and which applies an extinguisher
on all future hope of vindicating freedom by means of this vaunted
device.

14. " I gladly acknowledge," says his Lordship, " the propriety of
excluding the 88th clause, respecting slaves having in their possession
articles used in the practice of Obeah." We cannot however our-
selves derive much consolation from this slight modification of a
most unjust and cruel enactment, while the laws on the subject of
Obeah itself continue to deform the statute book of any British Co-
lony, and to be sanctioned by the British Crown.

We took occasion, in considering the disallowed Act of 1826, (Vol.
ii. No. 38, p. 267,) to advert to the excessive severity of the clauses
(84, 89, and 90,) which inflict a capital punishment on Obeah, that is,
in other words, on pretences to supernatural powers and practices, par-
taking of the nature of pretended conjuration and witchcraft. We
then observed that, " of this description of offence both the belief
and the effect are mainly to be ascribed to the undue severity of the
laws enacted for its suppression. The negro must conceive that there

62 Nev) Slave Code of Jamaica.

is some awful reality in pretences and practices, which excite sueh
unsparing' vengeance on the part of the legislature ; and the very evil
therefore which neglect would reduce to insignificance, and above
all, which Christian instruction would speedily eradicate, is thus
actually fostered and increased by the misapplied severity with Vv-hich
it is denounced and persecuted. Heathen superstition may thus have its
martyrs, as well as Christianity itself." And again we added, (No. 43,
p. 345,) " In the midst of much that is marked by the most enlightened
views of policy, we were surprised to find a mind like that of Mr,
Huskisson, conceding, for a single moment, the propriety of enact-
ments against Obeah."

Perhaps however we ought to blame ourselves, much more than Mr.
Huskisson, for not having denounced, more frequently and more
loudly, this too long tolerated, though extensively legalized outrage
on every principle of justice, humanity, and even common sense.
But before we proceed, let us see what it is, which in the year 1831,
His Majesty in Council has sanctioned as law in Jamaica, as well as
in other Colonies, by permitting Obeah to be treated as a capital
crime, punishable with death.

" §. 83. And in order to prevent the many mischiefs that may
hereafter arise, from the wicked arts of negroes, going under the
appellation of Obeah, or Myal men and women, ?in& pretending to
have communication with the devil, and other evil spirits, whereby
the weak and superstitious are deluded into a belief of their having
full power to exempt them, whilst under their protection, from many
evils that might otherwise happen : Be it further enacted, that from
and after the commencement of this Act, any slave who shall pretend
to any supernatural power in order to excite rebellion, or other evil
purposes; or shall use, or pretend to use, any such practices, with
intent, or so as to affect, or endanger, the life, or health, of any
other slave," (not of any free man!) " or under any other pretence
whatsoever, shall, upon conviction thereof, suffer death, or trans-
portation, or ANY SUCH PUNISHMENT AS THE COURT MAY DIRECT ;

any thing in this, or in any other Act, to the contrary notwith-
standing."

" §. 85. And be it further enacted, that if any negro, or other slave
or slaves, shall mix or prepare, with an intent to give, or cause to be
given, any poison, or poisonous or noxious drug, pounded glass, or
other deleterious matter, in the practice of Obeah or otherivise,
although death may not ensue on the taking thereof; the said slave
or slaves, together with their accessaries, as well before as after the
fact, being slaves," (all this then is no crime in free persons!) " being
duly convicted thereof, shall suffer death, or such punishment as
THE court shall AWARD, any thing in this, or in any othe Act to
the contrary, in any wise, notwithstanding."

And let no man flatter himself that these atrocious enactments are,
like those clauses in this Act which profess to give protection to the slave,
almost a dead letter. Oh no! they are in living and almost unceasing
and ferocious operation. And what are the many executions which,
from time to time take place under them, but so many judicial mur-

Neiu Slave Code of Jamaica. 63

ders? What, we ask, can justify such laws and such proceedings,
which would not equally justify the revival of our own ancient and
bloody statutes against witchcraft ; or even the enactment of a new
law which should condemn., to the gallows, all the pretenders to
supernatural communications and powers, in our own day ? For their
condign punishment, the very same plea might and would be urged
by many, that "^ the weak and superstitious are deluded by them."

It is not a little remarkable, that in the Island of Antigua, where
no law has ever existed against Obeah, no complaint has ever been
made of the existence or danger of the practice. It is no less remarkable
that in Africa itself, the native country of the Obeah superstition; even
at Sierra Leone, filled with native Africans, imbued with a belief in
that superstition, no measures of penal repression have been ever
called for, or even dreamed of for a moment, as necessary ; and that
the exclusive remedy which any one there has thought of applying
to the evil, and under the operation of which indeed it has been ra-
pidly disappearing from day to day, has been the diff'^sion of Christian
light among the subjects of it.

15. The only other remark made by Lord Goderich, refers to some
unimportant variation in the still inadequate and defective law of
Slave evidence, and the reason he gives for his having limited his anim-
adversions to the clauses noticed above, he distinctly states to be,
that he had been anticipated, in the greater part of those he should
otherwise have had to make, by Mr. Huskisson's despatches of the
22nd September 1827, and 22nd March 1828, and which he distinctly
refers to, as containing " a full exposition of the views of His
Majesty's Government, respecting the present state of the laws of
Jamaica on the subject of Slavery." His own remarks are thus
therefore almost entirely confined to the few points in which the Act
of 1831 varies, either for good or evil, from that of 1826. He thus
concludes his despatch: —

" I have now adverted to every material topic which this statute has brought,
for the first time, under the notice of His Majesty's Government. It is not with-
out very sincere reluctance that I observe, that the value of the advantages gained
by the rejection of the clauses respecting religious worship, is, in no small degree,
impaired by some of the alterations to whicli I have adverted. The advance
made since the year 1826, cannot, I fear, be truly stated as considerable, while,
as I have already shewn, the law passed in thai year has, in the act of February-
last, undergone changes which, in many important respects, diminish its value and
impair its efficacy. Still, upon the whole, I am happy to acknowledge, that by
passing this act into a law, the colonial slave code will be improved. It is for
that reason, and not as regarding this statute as a satisfactory comphance with the
repeated injunctions of His Majesty's Government, that the Ministers of the
Crown have humbly advised His Majesty that it be left to its operation."

If it be true, and to a certain, though we must say a very limited
degree indeed, it is true, that the Jamaica Slave law of 1831 is an
improvement on the slave law which it has superseded, namely that
of 1816, (all the intermediate acts having been disallowed on account
of their persecuting clauses, and never therefore having come into
operation) then the act will only shew, when the law comes to be
viewed as a whole, what it is which, under the most favourable cir-

64 New Slave Code of Jamaica.

eumstances, we have to expect, when, forgetful of our own highest
obligations, we delegate to any body of slave holders, however respect-
able, the task of framing laws for the government and protection of
their wretched bondmen !

In this view we deem it our duty to exhibit an analysis of the entire
Act, bearing date the 19th of February 1831, as it now stands, and
is left, by the King in Council, to its operation over 330,000 of his
Majesty's subjects.

§ 1 and 2. It is declared expedient to revise and consolidate the
laws now in force ; and to enact other provisions to promote the i-e-
ligious and moral instruction, and to increase the general comfort and
happiness of the slaves " as far as is consistent with due order and
subordination, and the well-being of the Colony." All previous acts
on the subject, therefore, are repealed.

§ 3. Renews, totidem verbis, a clause which has stood in aim st
every slave act since 1696, commanding owners and managers to
teach Christianity to their slaves ; a clause, however, which, being
without sanction or penalty, and without any means prescribed for
effecting its professed object, has hitherto been a dead letter, and
wholly without the slightest practical operation whatever.

§ 4. Professes to encourage, while in fact it impedes, the marriages
of slaves. (See Vol. iii. No. 60, p. 195.)

§ 5. Slaves taken under execution are to be sold singly. In the case

of families, however, when levied together, they shall he sold together;

^but it is distinctly provided that in the levy families may be separated.

No provision is made against the separation of families, by sale,
in any other case than that of slaves taken in execution.

§ 6. Sunday markets are actually legalized, for the first time, by
this law, at least, until eleven o'clock. It is only after eleven o'clock
that they are required to cease.

§ 7. "To render the Sabbath as much as possible a day of rest,
and of religious worship,*" slaves are not to be levied upon for their
master's debts on Saturdays, any more than on Sundays.

§ 8. Slaves are to be allowed, exclusive of Sundays and certain
holidays, a day in each fortnight, out of crop time, so as to make 26
week days in the year, besides Sundays, to cultivate their provision
grounds. The penalty for failing to do so is only £20, which is not
equal to more than two or three days' labour of a large gang.

§ 9. Slaves are debarred from being employed for hire on Sunday,
by any but their owner, without the consent of such ovvner in writing,
under a penalty of £5.

This seems a harsh, and uncalled for restriction.

§ 10. During crop slaves are to be exempt from plantation labour
on Sundays; and mills are. not to be put about between 7 on Saturday
evening, and 5 on Monday morning, under a penalty of £20.

* The hypocrisy of this preamble is manifest. How can it be said that all that
is possible has been done to make Sunday a day of rest and worship, while no
other day is given to the slave, and while he vmst still employ the Sunday in
marketing', and in cultivating his grounds ?

New Slave Code of Jamaica. &5

Nothing is said of exemption from labour on Sundays, out of crop.
In fact Sunday is appropriated by the slaves, both in and out of crop,
to cultivate their provision grounds, which is virtually labouring for
their masters, and in going to market.

§ 1 1. The negro grounds are to be inspected monthly by managers,
under a penalty of £10. If there are no grounds proper for culti-
vating provisions, or the grounds are unproductive from dry weather
or other causes, then the owner is to make " other good and ample
provision of food for his slaves," under a penalty of not more
than £20.

How vague and worthless an enactment in a case so vital !

§ 12. Masters are to give to each slave, proper and sufficient
clothing, to be approved of by the Justices and Vestry of the Parish,
under a penalty of 51. for each slave not so provided.

§ 13. Once every year Managers shall, under a penalty of not more
than 20^. give in, at the Vestry, an account, on oath, of the nature
and quantity of clothing actually served to each slave ; and shall de-
clare, also on oath, that he has inspected the negro grounds, and that
every negro has been allowed twenty-six week days for the cultivation
of them during the preceding year, and is sufficiently provided with
grounds ; and, where there are not grounds, with other ample pro-
vision.

How vague still ! The accounts, too, are to be approved by the Jus-
tices and Vestry, each of whom has his own account to render.

§ 14. Pretends to give to slaves a right of personal property, but
as we have shown above, (p. 59.) does not give even a shadow of it.

§ 15. On this clause, respecting bequests to slaves, Ave have
already commented above (p. 59.)

§ 16. For this clause, respecting '■' mothers of six living children,"
see also above, (p. GO.)

§ 17. . Prohibits owners, &c., from turning away their aged or in-
firm slaves, or permitting them to stray from the plantation, on ac-
count of infirmity or disease, but directs owners to provide them with
'^ sufficient clothing and wholesome necessaries of life," under a pe-
nalty of 20Z. It further directs, that such slaves when found wandering,
shall be lodged in the Workhouse, and maintained there at the
owner's expense.

§ 18. This clause professes to make provision for " the many un-
happy objects," who have been " manumized," but are become " a
burthen or nuisance" to the country.

We have here a kind of legislative argument against maBumission.
And yet, when in 1826 returns on this subject were called for, and
laid before Parliament, (see No. 353, of 1826,) it appeared that while,
in Jamaica, where the white population amounted to only about
15,000, the paupers of that class were about 300 ; the paupers of the
black and coloured classes, being the " manumized," whose popula-
tion amounted to upwards of 40,000, were only about 150, being in
the proportion, according to their respective numbers, of only one
" manumized," to six "white" paupers; but, in the amount of relief,
only about one to twelve. Of the "manumized" paupers, too, almost

K

66 New Slave Code of Jamaica.

all, it would appear, had been the concubines, or illegitimate children
of deceased pauper and destitute "whites." Vol. i. No. 19, p. 275o

§ 19. Owners manumizing old and infirm slaves, are to allow each
slave so manumized \0l. per annum for life, under a penalty of lOOZ.

§ 20, 21. Aged or disabled slaves, belonging to persons insolvent,
are to be removed to the owner's parish, and there provided for.

§ 22. Field Slaves are allowed half an hour for breakfast, and
two hours for dinner; and are not to be compelled to field luork, be-
fore 5 in the mornings or after 7 at night, except during crop : under
a penalty of not more than 507.

This clause thus gives to the master a legal right to eleven hours
and a half of field work in the twenty-four,, all the year round, be-
sides an indefinite addition to this monsti'ous exaction, during crop,
which lasts for four or five months in the year ; and a variety of other
exactions of a very onerous kind, for which we must refer to our
Vol. iii. No. 60, p, 204; and Vol. iv. No. 82, p. 296.

§ 23. Slaves are allowed Holidays at Christmas and Easter, but
no other, under a penalty of 51.

They are now for the first time, deprived of holidays at Whit
Sunday also, which by law they had hitherto had. The number of
holidays to be given them, is not specified in the Act. It may
therefore be only one ; and it is not, in any case, to be more than three.
Easter being a Sunday, is obviously no boon, without at least one
additional day. (See above,, p. 60.)

§ 24. Slaves detecting runaways, or informing so as to convict
persons of concealing or harbouring runaways, are to be rewarded
with from twenty to forty shillings, as any justice shall determine.

§ 25. If any person hereafter shall, with malice aforethought,
kill or murder any negro or other slave, such person, so offending,
shall, on conviction, be adjudged guilty of" felony without benefit of
clergy, and shall suffer death accordingly, for the said offence."

§ 26, 27. The rape of a female slave under ten, as well as of any
female slave, is made a capital felony.

§ 28. No conviction of felony under this act, shall extend to the
corrupting of blood, or forfeiture of lands, or chattels of the felon.

§ 29. Any person, who shall by himself, or by his direction, or
consent, or will, or privity, " mutilate or dismember, or wantonly or
cruelly whip, maltreat, beat, bruise, wound, or imprison, or keep in
confinement without sufficient support, or brand any slave," (branding
being now first made an offence) " shall be liable to be indicted for
such offence," and " on conviction shall be punished by fine not ex-
ceeding £100, or imprisonment not exceeding twelve months, or both,
for each slave so treated as aforesaid ; such punishment to be without
prejudice to any action for damages, where the injured slave is not
the property of the offender ; and where he is, and the case is atro-
cious, the Court convicting, may declare the injured slave free
from all servitude whatsoever, and may direct the fine exacted from
the convict, to be given to the Justices and Vestry of the parish, who
shall pay, to the slave so made free, ten pounds a year for life."

5i 30 — 32. These three clauses refer to constitutinsr the Justices

New Slave Code of Jamaica, 67

and Vestry of each parish, a Council of Protection, to inquire into
the complaints of the maltreatment of slaves, and giving them power
to prosecute all persons guilty of such maltreatment.

The total inefficacy of this boasted contrivance for the protection of,
the slaves, by appointing to protect them the very men against whom
they need to be protected, is now matter of history, as it was always
matter of reasonable anticipation and presumption. To find abun-
dant evidence of the most authentic kind to this fact, it is only ne-
cessary to turn to th€ index of our four volumes, under the heads of
Protectors, and Councils of Protection. The institution of such Coun-
cils has proved not only useless, but actually injurious to its pro-
fessed object.

§ 33. By this clause, " in order to restrain arbitrary punishment,''
for such is its professed intent, the power is actually given to every
driver, or quasi driver of inflicting ten lashes, and to every owner, or
quasi owner or manager, of inflicting, on every slave, man, woman,
or child in the island, arbitrary punishment, to the extent of thirty-
nine lashes of the cart-whip at one time, under a penalty, if that
number be exceeded, or too soon repeated, of not less than £10, or
more than £20.

An attempt to pourtray the whole enormity of this merciless enact-
ment, this mockery of a restraint on arbitrary punishment, may be
found in our fourth Vol. No. 82, p. 500, and in various other parts
of the Reporter.

§ 34. This clause, under a penalty of £5, limits the monstrous
power which had hitherto been possessed by owners, of arbitrarily
sending their slaves to gaol for an indefinite period, to a committal of
them for ten days, unless a justice's warrant extends the term ; — and
on those in gaol, limits the formerly unlimited power of arbitrarily
inflicting corporal punishment, to not more than twenty lashes, un-
less a justice's warrant enlarges the number. It moreover subjects the
repetition of such punishment for the same offence to a fine of not
more than £20 ; the workhouse-keeper being also liable to a penalty
of not more than £10 if he shall be a party to any such unlawful in-
fliction. (See above, p. 60.)

§, 35. No workhouse-keeper shall receive any slave for punishment,
or punish such slave without a ivritten order from the owner or
manager, under a penalty of not more than £10.

If he has however this written order, he may punish the slave,
without even the assignment of an offence, at the mere bidding of the
owner or manager, whoever he may be. (See above, p. 60.)

§.36. Workhouse-keepers may not employ for their own profit
either slaves committed to them for punishment, without leave of the
Governors of the workhouse ; or slaves committed for security or pro-
tection; under a penalty of £10.

§. 37. Any justice receiving from any slave probable intelligence of
any other slave having been improperly punished, may inquire, and if he
find cause, may proceed against the offender ; but if the intelligence
should prove groundless, then the justice may punish his informant
v/ith 39 lashes, or hard labour in the workhouse for a month.

G8 Neiu Slave Code of Jamaica.

What slave would give information on such terms ?

§. 38. No person shall punish a slave by fixing a collar on his neck,
or loading- his body or limbs with chains or weights, other than a light
collar without hooks, for one slave ; and " light collars and chains
where there are more slaves than one ; " but this can only be
done by order of a magistrate, under a penalty of not less than £5,
or more than £50. And magistrates are required, under a penalty of
£100, to remove, on information or view, all chains or collars that
have not been put on by a magistrate's order.

This is a much harsher clause than the corresponding one in the
former act, (See above, p. 61.)

§. 39. No slave is to travel except to and from market, nor to be
found off his m.aster's plantation without a written permit, in which
are to be specified the particulars of the case, under a penalty of not
more than 40s. on the master, if the fault be the master's; or corporal
punishment to the slave, if the faidt be the slave's.

What a system of restraint have we here ! !

§ 40. Prohibits, without certain onerous formalities, the hiring out
of slaves for a shorter period than three months., on pain of whipping
to the slave, and a fine of £5 on the master permitting it.

The drift of such an enactment is not very obvious.

§ 41. All slaves shall be deemed runaways, who are absent Avithout
leave for Jive days ; or who shall be found eight miles from the mas-
ter's domicile, except when going to, or coming from market.

§ 42. Slaves convicted of being runaways for more than six months,
shall be transported for life, or punished with confinement to hard
labour, for periods according to the magnitude of the offence.

§ 43. Slaves running away for less than six months, may be
punished by flogging not exceeding 39 lashes, or by confinement to
hard labour for not less than three months ; but if they shall have
frequently run away, and be declared by their owner or manager to
be " incorrigible runaways," they may, on conviction, be confined to
hard labour, or transported for life, as the court shall direct.

§§ 44, 45. Slaves harbouring, or aiding runaways, shall on con-
viction receive such punishment, not extending to life, as the court
may direct ; and free persons guilty of this crime, shall be fined not
more than £50, or imprisoned not more than three months, and shall
pay besides 35, Ad. a day for every day such slave shall have been
absent.

§ 46. Justices may issue warrants to search for runaways, or for
persons suspected of harbouring runaways, and in the search, may
break open all doors of negro hovises.

§ 47. FVee persons giving false pei'mits or tickets of absence to
slaves may, on conviction, be punished by fine or imprisonment, or
both, or such other punishment, as the court in its discretion may
direct, not extending to life.

§. 48. Any person, except maroons, apprehending a runaway, shall
receive from the owner, IO5. and mile money at fixed rates. Maroons,
instead of 10s. shall receive 40s. for each runaway they shall appre-
hend. Runaways, when apprehended, are either to be conveyed to

New Slave Code of Jamaica. 69

their owners, or lodged in the nearest workhouse ; the owner, or
workhouse-keeper, paying to the party bringing- him the reward and
the mile money. Those lodged in workhouses shall be advertised by
the keepers of them in the different newspapers, with particular de-
scriptions ; for which advertisements the owners shall pay, together
with certain rates per day for the expense of such slave's maintenance
and medical attendance, and all other necessary expenses.

§ 51. The keepers of workhouses and gaols, under a penalty of
£10 for every neglect, shall give, daily, to each slave, a provision of
wholesome food, not less than one quart of unground Guinea, or In-
dian corn, or three pints of the meal of either, or three pints of wheat
flour, or eight full grown plantains, or eight pounds of cocoas or yams,
and one herring or shad, or other salted provisions equal thereto ; and
also good and sufficient clothing, where necessary.

This is more than twice the Demerara and Leeward Island allow-
ance to field slaves. (See Vol. iv. No. 82, p. 294.)

§ 52, 53. If any slave sent in as a runaway alleges himself to be
free, it shall be the duty of the senior justice of the parish, to convene
a special sessions of not less than three justices, to examine the truth
of such allegation, due notices being first given ; and if the person
detained as a runaway is found to be free, he shall forthwith be dis-
charged, or if not, he shall be remanded to the workhouse ; the de-
cision of the special sessions being however, without prejudice to the
right either of the person claiming to be free, or of any person claim-
ing a right to him as a slave ; and no person, so detained as a run-
away and claiming to be free, shall be sold, until such special session
shall have met, and certified their decision.

§. 54, 55. Impose penalties on persons fraudulently purchasing
slaves sold out of workhouses, and on workhouse-keepers conniving
at such practices.

§. 5Q, 57. Regulate the proceedings to be had in cases of homine
replegiando. (See -above, p. 61.)

§. 58 — 60. Any slave running away and going off, or conspiring to
go off the island, in any boat or vessel whatever, or aiding or abetting
slaves to do so, shall suffer such punishment as the court shall think
proper, not extending to life ; and any free person convicted of aiding
in any such going off, shall forfeit £300 for each slave so aided, and
shall be imprisoned for not more than 12 months; half the fine to
go to the king, and half to the informer ; and the persons aiding or
abetting may be prosecuted, whether the principals are convicted or
not.

§. 61. No slave shall travel the public roads, " with dogs, or cut-
lasses, or other offensive weapons ; " without a ticket from his owner,
or hunt any cattle, horses, &c., with lances, guns, &c., unless in
company with his master, or some free person deputed by him, or
by permission in writing, on pain of suffering such punishment as
three justices may inflict, not exceeding 39 lashes, or three months*
hard labour in the workhouse.

§. 62, 63. If any owner or other free person shall suffer any slaves
to assemble on any plantation to beat drums or blow horns, and shall

70 Neui Slave C9de of Jamaica.

not endeavour to prevent and disperse the same, applying to a magis-
trate for aid if necessary, may be indicted, and if convicted, fined
£50 ; and all officers, civil and military, are required to disperse all
such unlawful assemblies, and prevent all such unlawful drummings
and other noises ; — provided that this shall not prevent oy/ners or
managers from permitting their slaves to assemble on their plantations
for any innocent amusement, so as that they do not use military
drums, horns, or shells, and that they put an end to the amusements,
by 12 o'clock at night.

§. 64. To prevent riots, and injury to health, all negro burials shall
take place in the day time, so as to end before sunset, under a
penalty on the master or manager permitting it of £50. And if a
burial takes place after sunset in other places than plantations, the
person on whose premises it occurs shall be fined from £5 to £50, and
the slaves attending it, shall be punished, on conviction before three
justices, with not more than 39 lashes.

The health of the slaves which becomes the subject of lively appre-
hension when a funeral, or attendance on Christian worship in an
evening, is in question, is thought little of by the planters when the
night work of crop, or the continuous labour of 16 or 18 hours in a
day, is required of them.

§. 65, 66. Any free person suffering an unlawful assembly of slaves
on his premises, shall be fined not more than £100, or imprisoned not
more than six months. Free persons suffering slaves to game in their
houses, or gaming with them, may be committed by three justices, to
the common gaol for six days, and slaves doing the same may be pun-
ished by 39 lashes. What a disproportionate punishment !

§. 67 — 75. These clauses treat of manumission, and they afford
certain legal facilities in cases of manumission by bequest, or where
the owners are willing to manumit, but are prevented by mortgages or
other incumbrances from accomplishing their object ; — iDut they afford
no means whatever of effecting the manumission of a slave, under
any circumstances, without the consent of the master.

§. 76 — 79. Order persons travelling about to traffic in the purchase
and sale of slaves, to be committed, and the slaves so trafficked in to
be sold and the proceeds given, one half to the informer, and the
other half to the poor of the parish ; and any sale of slaves made by
such itinerant traffickers in slaves are declared void, and the slaves are
to be resold and their proceeds applied as before directed.

We are at a loss to conceive the ground of this enactment, except
it be the jealousy felt by the great slave traffickers, who compose the
assembly, of the petty chapmen in the same commodity who would
interfere with them.

§. 79. " No writ of certiorari or other process, shall issue, or be
issuable, to remove any proceedings v/hatsoever, had in pursuance of
this act, into the supreme Court of Judicature, or into any other of
the courts of this island."

It is difficult at first sight to conceive the object of this enactment;
and care is taken to throw no light upon it by any preamble or ex-
planation whatever. It stands too quite alone, isolated from all other-

Neio Slave Code of Jamaica. 7!

poiiits of legislation. The only end we can suppose it to be intended
to answer is to keep all matters connected with the administration of
the slave laws in the hands of the justices, and of the slave courts —
generally consisting of planters — and thus preventing the trial and dis-
cussion of such cases before an enlightened court, a liberal bar, and
town juries, as less likely to be imbued with the inveteracy of colo-
nial prejudice. At least, we can imagine no other rational motive for
it. Indeed we are the more inclined to this opinion from recollecting
that, in the case of the Rev. Mr. Bridges and Kitty Hilton, an at-
tempt was made, by a reference to this very enactment, to prevent
the cause being brought before the grand courts sitting at Spanish-
town, under the presidency of the late Sir William Scarlett. The
question itself was not, however, discussed in court, as the grand jury
threw out the bill of indictment preferred against Mr. Bridges. The
reader will find some light thrown on the subject in our third volume,
No. 66, p. 381.

§. 80 — 135. These fifty-six clauses may be considered as the penal,
criminal, slave law of Jamaica. This is wholly independent of all
the restraints and privations, and separations ; of all the exactions of
labour and abridgements of natural repose ; of all the inflictions of
arbitrary punishment, by the owner or his delegate, with their cart-
whip, and their stocks ; of all the details of plantation discipline; and of
all the nameless indignities, attendant on the ever present and ever
wakeful domestic despotism to which they are subject. Of all this,
we say, it is wholly independent ; it is a criminal code for slaves in
addition thereto, which is peculiarly their own ; and it is written, as
we shall see, in characters of blood.

Death, transportation, or such other punishment as the court may
direct, is, by this code, awarded to all slaves guilty of rebellion, or
rebellious conspiracy ; oi murder ; felony ; burglary; robbery ; firhig
negro or other houses, cane-pieces, grass-pieces, ox: corn-pieces ; break-
ing into such houses in the day time and stealing thereout, no person
being therein; ox committing any other crime which would subject
free persons to be indicted for felony (§. 80.) ; — all slaves,
moreover, " assaulting or offering any violence, by strking or other-
wise to or towards any free person^' provided it be not by com-
mand, or in defence of his owner (§. 81); all slaves pretending or
practising Obeah, (see above, p. 62, §. 83 and 85) ; all slaves
" found at any meeting formed for administering unlawful oaths, by
drinking human blood mixed with rum, grave dirt, or otherivise, or for
learning the use of arms for any unlawful purpose, (§. 86,) in which
punishment freemen, aiding or assisting at such meetings, are joined
(§. 87); all slaves stealing or killing any cattle, sheep, goat, hog,,
horse, mule or ass, or stealing any part of the flesh thereof (§. 89) ;
and all slaves wantonly cutting, chopping, maiming and injuring any
such animals, if they die within ten days of the offence, or any
other slave, so as to kill or dismember or make him a cripple
(§. 92, 93.)

Besides th-ese crimes, which are all made capital, the law subject^'

72 New Slave Code of Jamaica.

all slaves found canning fire or other arms without the knowledge and
consent of the owner, to transportation, or such other punishment as
the' Court may direct (§. 82) ; all slaves attending nightly meetings
unknown to owners, &c., or not informing a magistrate of any un-
lawful meetings, to hard labour for such ti^j^e, or to whipping to such
extent as the Court may direct (§. 84 and 88) ; all slaves having any
fresh beef, mutton, &c., in his possession, unknown to his owner, if
under 20 pounds, to 39 lashes, if above 20 pounds, to such punish-
ment not extending to life, or to transportation or imprisonment for
life as the Court may direct (§. 90) ; and all slaves having in their
possession unknown to their owner, not exceeding 5 pounds of sugar,
or coffee, or pimento, or one gallon of rum, to 39 lashes, or more
than 20 pounds of sugar, &c., or 5 gallons of rum, to such punish-
ment not extending to life, or to transportation or imprisonment for
life as the Court shall think proper. And when slaves are found
guilty of any of these crimes, and sentence either of death or
transportation is passed upon them, such sentence shall not be carried
into effect but by warrant of the Governor after the whole of the evi-
dence and proceedings have been submitted to him, " except when
sentence of death shall be passed on any slave or slaves convicted
of rebellion or rebellious conspiracy, in which case the Court shall
and may proceed to carry the sentence into execution as heretofore,"
that is, without any reference to the Governor (§. 95.)

The exception here made is the very case above all others which
requires the review and interference of the Governor. It is the very
case in which the passions of the judges and jury are likely to be the
most excited, and all the substantial ends of justice to be overlooked
and frustrated. A striking proof of this was given in the House of
Commons on the 2nd of March, 1826, when the present Attorney-
General, then Mr. Denman, brought before the view of Parliament,
the many judicial murders which had been perpetrated in Jamaica, in
1 824, on slaves charged with rebellion and rebellious conspiracy, and
whose only crime really was that such convictions and executions were
called for in order to impress on the public mind in England the be-
lief that insurrections would infallibly attend the agitation of the
question of slavery in the British Parliament. On this occasion, even
the members of the Goverment, with Mr. Canning at their head, and
who had entered the house intending to oppose Mr. Denman's motion
for condemning these proceedings, found themselves compelled to de-
part from their purpose, and to concur in reprobating them. The
House unanimously resolved that "it sees in the proceedings which
have been brought under its consideration, with respect to the late
trials of slaves in Jamaica, further proof of the evils inseparably at-
tendant on a state of slavery, and derives therefrom increased convic-
tion of the propriety of the resolutions passed by this House on
the 15th of May, 1823." v

And now, after all this, we have the same Jamaica planters, who
formed the tribunals thus reprobated in 1826, claiming a right summa-.
rily to inflict death on the king's subjects, without even a reference of their

Neiv Slave Code of Jamaica. ^3

Judgment to the king's representative in the island, and this claim ad-
mitted by the allovjance of the present act.

The proceedings in ParHament on this occasion, may be seen in our
First Volume, No. 10, p. 113 — 126; and the facts on which those pro-
ceedings were founded in a pamphlet, entitled " The Slave Colonies of
Great Britain, or a picture of Negro Slavery drawn by the Colonists
themselves," published by Hatchard, p. 35 — 63.

But to proceed with our analysis of the Slave law of 1831. — One
clause (§ 97) directs that slaves who have stood committed to gaol for
six months without being indicted shall be discharged by proclama-
tion ; and another (§ 100) that the Magistrates and Vestry of every
parish, may (not shall) employ a Barrister or Attorney, to defend slaves
tried for capital ofFences^at such remuneration as they shall see fit
By another clause (§ 103) Records are to be kept only of the judicial
proceedings against Slaves condemned to death, transportation or hard
labour. In no other case is any Record required.

Slaves who are sentenced to death, or to transportation, or to impri-
sonment to hard labour for life, are to be valued by the Jury, and the
value, not exceeding £50, in the case of runaways, or £100 in the case
of other convicts shall be paid to the owner (109 and ill.) — This
most iniquitous principle has been strongly protested against by each
succeeding Secretary of State ; but it still continues, under the Royal
sanction, to disgrace the Slave Code not only of Jamaica but of almost
every chartered slave colony belonging to the Crown.

Slaves returning from transportation, or escaping from confinement,
are to undergo their sentence ; or if the crimes for which they are
transported would lawfully have subjected them to death, they shall
suffer death without benefit of clergy, and the person apprehending such
shall receive a reward of £25, (§ 112— 114, and 123.) The Governor
may commute sentences of transportation or imprisonment and hard
labour for life or a term of years for a shorter term (§ 122.) Gaolers,
&c. suffering slaves to escape from neglect, or compelling slaves com-
mitted to their custody to labour, are to forfeit £50. (§ 125.)

Slaves accused of inferior crimes and misdemeanours (not provided
for above) including swearing, obscene language, drunkenness and in-
decent and noisy behaviour, shall be tried in a summary way by two or
more justices, who may punish to the extent of thirty-nine lashes, or
three months' hard labour, (§ 128.)

This is indeed a summary and sweeping enactment.

§ 130 — 135. These clauses contain the new law on the subject of
slave evidence ; but we need not now enter upon its details, having
already fully considered them. We refer our readers to Vol. ii. No. 33,
p. 179 ; and No. 38, p. 266 ; and Vol. iv. No. 82, p. 305.

The remaining clauses (§ 136 — 139.) respect merely technical mat-
ters and need not detain us with any observations.

Before we proceed to close this article, there is one circumstance to
which we think it incumbent upon us again to call the special attention
of our readers. We have already informed them that from the present
Act, that of 1831, the persecuting clauses against the Methodists and
other Sectaries, and against slaves instructing their fellows, or contri-

L

74 Neiv Slave Code of Jamaica

buting tlieir money for religious objects, have been excluded. These
clauses had stood in the former disallowed Act of 1826, and in the
other disallowed Acts which succeeded it. In that of 1826, those
clauses are numbered 85, 86, and 87; and they are singularly placed
between two clauses, 84 and 89, one of which condemned to death the
professors, and the other the practisers of the Obeah superstition. The
clause 84, in the Act of 1826, is the same with that numbered 83 in the
Act of 1831 ; and the clause 89 of 1826, is the same with that num-
bered 85, in the present Act. Transcripts of these clauses will be
found above, p. 62.

Now it is exactly between these two clauses that in the Act of 1826,.
the Jamaica legislature had contrived to thrust the three persecuting
clauses which they so fondly cherished, and to which they have so
tenaciously clung. The first of them (§. 85,) denounces the practice
of slaves attempting to teach or instruct other slaves, as of " pernicious
consequence,'' and as even producing risk to life; and punishes the
offence by whipping and imprisonment to hard labour in the workhouse.
The second (§. 86,) denounces all religious meetings of dissenters as
dangerous to the public peace, and injurious to the health of the slaves,
if held after dusk ; and imposes on all teachers holding any such meet-
ings between sunset and sunrise, a fine of from £20 to £50. The
third (§. 85,) makes it highly penal for any dissenting minister or teacher
to receive any money from slaves, in the way of contribution for re»
ligious or other purposes ; it being alleged, in the preamble to the
clause, " that large sums of money and other chattels had been extorted
by designing men, professing to be teachers of religion, practising on
the ignorance and superstition of the negroes, to their great loss and
impoverishment."

It seems, therefore, fair to inquire, what could have induced the le-
gislators of Jamaica, even if they saw it right to frame and pass such
iniquitous clauses as these at all, to choose deliberately to place them in
the midst of the criminal part of the code, bristling as it does with all
sorts of enormities, and especially to connect them by more immediate
juxtaposition, and interfusion, with the capital crimes of \\'\e. profession
and the practice of Obeah ? It may have been, and probably was,^
their intention to intimate thereby their own opinion that the Metho-
dist and other dissenting missionaries had found only their proper
place, in the scale of moral turpitude, among murderers and felons, and
would deservedly also share (had they so dared to enact) the murderer's
and felon's doom of death or transportation. Or they might have
wished to intimate that the pernicious lessons these missionaries con-
veyed to the slaves, — the Christianity professed and taught by these
sectaries — were on a level with the dark superstitions of the Obeah and
Myal men and women. Satanic as such a purpose would be, yet, how,
by any possibility, without some such intent, could the particular posi-
tion for the insertion of these persecuting clauses have been so very
curiously and aptly selected, by the Jamaica lawgivers of 1826, as inevit-
ably to produce the impression in question? We would not willingly
mipute to them so flagitious a design ; and yet let any man cast his eye
at the Act of 1826, and calmly consider the order in which the clauses

'New Slave Code of Jamaica. 75

from 84 to 90 follow each other, and then say whether it be possible to
escape from the inference we have ventured to draw from it. And are
these men to be still intrusted with the work of legislation? The guilt,
however, is not theirs alone, but ours also, if we go on to tolerate such
abominations ; — if among all our other sins we continue obstinately to
cling to such a system of crime, as has now been laid bare to the eye
of the national conscience.

When we recollect also the fabricated, and suborned, and garbled
testimony by which the House of Assembly of that day, endeavoured
to support their nefarious project of crushing or expelling Christian
missionaries from the island of Jamaica, (see vol. iii. No. 50, p. 24, &
No. 55, p. 162.) what can we conclude but that the whole of the alle-
gations contained in the preamble to the persecuting clauses of the Act
of 1826, were deliberate falsifications of fact ? But have we not reason
also to discredit their statements with respect to the professors and
practisers of Obeah, without the shadow of an attempt at proof
of the facts on which they have pretended to found their sanguinary
enactments respecting them ? For our own parts we believe the one just
as much as the other,andno more. Their charges against the Obeah and
Myal men and women, of dealings with evil spirits, and ot pro-
ficiency in the art of poisoning, which have led to so many judicial
murders in time past, and which are still likely to lead to many more,
are, we firmly believe, as utterly untrue, and as little substantiated by
any semblance of proof, as were their allegations of the seditious ten-
dency of the Christianity taught by Methodists and dissenters, and of
the pecuniary extortion and rapacity of which their missionaries were
affirmed to be guilty.

The latest effort of Jamaica legislation stands now before us fully ex-
hibited to public view, and we require no other proof of the innate and
incurable malignity of Colonial Slavery. The West Indians have been
calling loudly for evidence. We demand, they say, a committee of the
House of Lords, where witnesses may be examined on oath, and where
proofs may be given of the lenity and humanity, nay, of the loveliness
of the system we administer, drawn, not from musty records of the olden
time; not from witnesses who have quitted the Colonies for thirty or
forty years; but from men who, on their oaths, can testify to the actual
comfort and happiness of the enslaved negro's lot, — so just a subject
of envy to the British peasant, — so superior to that of those who are
cursed with freedom. But can they produce more conclusive evidence
than this new act contains, this perfect emanation of the wisdom and
humanity of Jamaica, in the very year which has just passed over our
heads ? Do they hope to strengthen it by bringing forward the men
who, in ] 825, expunged from the minutes of the Jamaica Assembly the
testimony of the Rev. J. M, Trew, on the evils caused by the rejection
of Slave evidence, lest it should find its way to England ; (Vol. iv.
No. 76. p. 108.) or even by calling upon the Elite of ihe West India body,
the forty-one associated advocates of West Indian humanity, to confirm
on oath the gross perversions of fact, the impostures which they have
permitted to issue under the sanction of their high names, (Ibid. No, 82,
p. 290.) In reply to all this and a thousand times more, we have only

7-6 Further Illustrations of the Effects oj Slavertj

to exhibit theJamaica slave laAv of 1831, — that latest and most perrecg
representation of the Colonial mind, that infallible interpreter of (heif
present principles and their present practice. Of these too it exhibits
a favourable specimen. They were legislating; in the view of the
British public. They knew that their proceedings would not escape
observation and scrutiny. And yet such is their total unacquaintance
with every sound maxim, whether of legislation or morals, and even
with the feelings by which men, not breathing the atmosphere and
wedded to the gains of Slavery are actuated, that the work they
have at length so elaborately produced, and are holding up to admiration
— this Act of theirs which we now present to our readers — can be viewed
only as an -outrage on humanity, and as a crime in those who framed and
in those, who when they shall have duly considered, shall continue to
sanction, or even to tolerate it. What then is the remedy? Need we
answer the question ? It is the extinction of Slavery ; the entire, the
final, and we add without hesitation, the immediate extinction of
Slavery; its extinction, indeed, accompanied by all due guards and pre-
cautions, and a just regard to all fair and well founded claims on the
part of individuals ; but still its extinction, its utter extinction in every
part df his Majesty's dominions.

II. — ■Further Illustrations of the Effects of Slavery
ON Manners and Morals in Jamaica,

Ttrawn from the periodical press of that Island.

The Christian Record of Jamaica, (No. 1. of a new series,) for
September 1831, has just reached us. It is a work which ought to be
read by every owner of slaves in that island, especially by every one
who is resident in this country at a distance of 5000 miles from the
sight and hearing of his Avretched dependants. The first paper in this>
number is especially addressed to them, and a few extracts may possi-
bly stimulate their curiosity to peruse the whole, with which they can
have no difficulty in being regularly supphed from Jamaica.

*' It has often," say the Editors,'" been a matter of surprise and deep regret to
US, to observe the carelessness and criminal unconcern with which the proprietors
of estates commit their slaves, body and soul, into the power of persons, as their
representatives in this country, who are totally unfit for such a charge.'' "They
eanzrot imagine that they are not responsible for the rehgious instruction, as weli
as for the temporal well-being of their slaves ;. and that they will not be called on
hereafter to give a strict account of the spiritual advantages which they have af-
forded them." " With what consistency, then, can a religious proprietor, in common
with all others, commit his estates to a man, whom he knows to be grossly hu-
mored, and therefore of necessity, irreligious ? Every proprietor must be pre-
sumed to have some acqxiaintance with his attorney, and with so much of his
character as the attorney takes no pains to conceal. At least, he cannot know or
believe him to be a Christian man ; and yet he abandons'the slave's spiritual, as
well as temporal, welfare wholly to his care ! What does he expect will be the
conduct of such a man ? Does he imagine that he will teach the slaves to con-
demn and abhor himself? or that he will allow others — -the ministers of religion
for instance, to teach this to the slaves, if he can prevent it?" "So sinful are the
ILves of the majoriti/ of attorneys in this country, and so litde trouble do they take;

on Manners and Morals in Jamaica. 77

io conceal their vices from public view, that the faithful minister of religion is
compelled, by every obligation of duty, publicly to warn others from following
tlieir example ; and when, as is the case every day, the slaves refer to the exam-
ple of their managers in exculpation of themselves, it becomes his imperative duty
to expose the sinfulness of these men, and, it necessarily follows, to hold them up
as objects of disgust and pity — a feeling which we know is too frequently mingled
with contempt. Now, will these men permit this to go on, if they can prevent
it? Will they not endeavour to obstruct the acquisition of such knowledge by
the slave, and to counteract, by all means in their power^ the influence and use-
fulness of the minister? Should any one be inclined to doubt upon this subject,
we now, on our personal knowledge, declare the fact to him. We tell proprie-
tors at home — Christian Proprietors — that their representatives do, by every means
and especially by secret and covert influence, endeavour to check the spread of
true religion among their slaves, and to render nugatory the efforts of the minister
to enforce the moral observance and the spiritual doctrines of the Gospel. This,
we declare to be the conduct commonly pursued by the great majority of the white
people on estates in Jamaica. And this their opposition arises, not only from
the general hatred which an irreligious man always evinces to spiritual truth, but
also from more immediate and obvious causes. Can it be supposed that an at-
torney or overseer, who is living in adulterous intercourse with one of the slaves
of the property on which he resides, (or with one, whom he has hired* or bought
elsewhere, for the purpose ! !) will render facilities to a clergyman to enforce the
obligations of the Seventh Commandment on that property ? Will he not rather
' prevent the meddling hypocrite from interfering in his private concerns ?' — with
his private property ? Such is the conduct which would in general be expected
from such men ; and such is the course which we personally know to l3e fre-
quently pursued." (p. 2.)

" We concede that there are a few Attorneys who do not discourage religious
instruction, further than by setting an irreligious example : but even these permit
the respective Overseers under them, together with all the white persons on each
property to act as we have described. And wherein, we would ask, consists the
difference between these, who are the better sort, and those who are utterly de-
praved ? Merely in this ; — the one permits persons under his authority to do that
which the other does himself : — the example and the injury is, in both cases, the
same to the slave. And it is an example followed to so appalling an extent, that
morality and principle are almost unknown among the young females on estates
in this country. Where a solitary instance of moral principle does occur, should
the unhappy individual become an object of lust to the Overseer, or even to a
Bookkeeper, every means — means altogether unjustifiable in the estimation of
even the most abandoned, are resorted to for the purpose of overcoming her re-
pugnance, and destroying her principle. The feelings of proprietors would be
harrowed, were they made fully acquainted with the scenes of this nature, which
are transacted on their estates. We have it in our power to detail not a few that
would curdle the blood in the heart of every one not altogether deadened in mo-
rality, by having long inhaled the pestilential atmosphere of a country which is
poisoned by ' colonial sin :' But we forbear ; — not simply because ' the greater
the truth the greater is the libel,' especially when tried in matters of tliis kind by

" * The Proprietors in England are of course anxious to ascertain every parti-
cular relating to their estates in this country, and especially the extent of the crop
made ; and no doubt many have correct copies of the crop accounts recorded in
the Secretary's Office transmitted to them. When examining these accounts of
ttnnuul profits, proprietors may have met with such items as these, " hire of Gracey,

a mulatto, to Mr. at £20 per annum." — " Hire of Anne Clarke, a mulatto, to

Mr. at £l6 per annum ;" — " Hire of Jane Munro, a cjuadroon, to Mr.

at £l6 per annum;" — " Hire of Catherine Stewart, to Mr. from 5th June

to 31st December, at £20 per annum." — We wonder if it has ever occurred to
them to inquire the purpose for whicli these females are hired I"

78 Further Illustrations of the Effects of Slavery

a Jamaica Jury; but because we would not be so unjust to the individuals im-
plicated in those cases, as to make them singly the objects of indignation for con-
duct they are only guilty of in common with the great majority of their fellows."

Again, " Overseers seldom apjDear in church. We speak within bounds when
we say that not one in tiventy of the white people in the country parishes presents
himself in church on any Sunday; the greater number are never within the walls
of a place of worship from January to December. Sunday is regarded by them
as a day set apart for a totally different purpose. It is a day of recreation and
pleasure — the day usually selected for dinner and festive parties, which frequently
end in disgusting and degrading excesses, exhibited to the population of the
estate. Or, among those who are not so totally lost to shame, it is spent in tra-
velling to and fro from the Post-Office for the purpose of reading the newspapers,
&c. passing, in very many instances, in their way to the Post-Office, the house of
God, where the clattering of their horses' hoofs and the rattling of their chaises,
attract the attention of the assembled congregation to behold their contemptuous
disregard of God and his ordinances. Sunday is also the day universally fixed
upon by Attornies and Overseers for travelling. — They will tell you, ' they
choose this day because they do not wish to be absent from the business of the
estate during the week :' " (p. 3.)

The Colonists, it is asserted by their advocates " are not unfriendly
to the religious instruction of their slaves ; on the contrary they are
anxious to promote it." — Yes, they would have the slaves taught a cer-
tain sort of religion,

" A religion which will not condemn a man to eternal damnation, be-
cause, 'from unavoidnhle circutnstances and his peculiar situation,' he had
been compelled to commit a little fornication, provided he ' kept constant' to
his sin : — which would not condemn him for a little drinking, swearing, lying, or
bearing false witness, or for a little cruelty — ' provided in the whole he did his
duty to his fellow-creatures.' Which would not condemn him for profaning the
Sabbath, ' provided on the whole he did his duty to his God.' A Clergyman,
or a Catechist, who will, by his prudent silence and discreet behaviour, sanction
such doctrines, they will be happy to receive and to 'admit' on the properties
under their charge ; but the slaves must be guarded against the ' pernicious,' not
to say ' seditious,' preachings of ' Evangelicals and Sectarians' — men who, by
their 'indiscreet zeal,' thus 'circumscribe the sphere of their usefulness!!'
These, although they may appear too absurd to come from the lips of men of
common sense, are nevertheless the very sentiments, or equivalent to the senti-
ments, which we hear expressed around us every day, aye — which we have on
record ! "

" In further illustration of the feeling of the planters towards the teachers of re-
ligion, we select from the writer we have already cjuoted, the following sentence.
*They,' (the benevolent and pious) 'gready err, if they suppose the Colonists ini-
mical to the object they have in view, however much they may occasionally have
been irritated by the conduct of Anti-Slavery Missionaries.' — Now what does
Mr. Barclay mean by Anti-Slavery Missionaries ? Does the Anti-Slavery So-
ciety send Missionaries to Jamaica ? No. Are the Missionaries in Jamaica sent
here for the purpose of secretly promoting the supposed objects of the Anti-
Slavery Society ? No man of sense thinks this — no man who observes their con-
duct impartially will credit it. Then why are they called ' Anti-Slavery Mis-
sionaries?' Because they have taught true Christianity ; and having been perse-
cuted by the Planters for so doing, they have very naturally appealed for protec-
tion to their friends ' at home,' and the Anti-Slavery Society have taken np their
complaint."* (p. 5.)

" * This feeling of irritation and hostility is not evinced to the ' Sectarians' alone.
It is true that the clergy of the Establishmeut did, for a long time, escape this

oyi Manners and Morals i?i Jamaica. 79

They conclude with solemnly calling on all, and especially on Chris-
tian Proprietors to reflect on what they have said, and to reflect that

" The generally degraded state of moral and religious feeling among the Attor-
nies and Overseers in the Colonies is in no slight degree to be attributed to the
indifference of their Employer to their character, in every other respect than that
of 'plantership.' Let them but once know that immoral and irreligious conduct
will as surely be followed by ' dismissal' as the failure of their crops, and we
should very shortly witness at least an outward reformation — we should no longer
be disgusted by the universal prevalence of unblushing libertinism,' or find the
Ministers of religion insulted, and opposed in every effort they may make for the
spread of real religion. Let the Proprietors athome give their orders, even to their
present Representatives, expressli/, neither to live in concubinage themselves, or to
permit it on their estates ; — to afford ' every facility' to the ministers of religion
(making those ministers the judges of what are facilities); — to employ none but
married overseers, or such single ones as will lead strictly moral lives. Let them
give these, and similar explicit and positive directions, and at the same time make
those to whom they are given intimately sensible that the continuance of their at-
torneyship depejids upon obedience — that if they will not obey, others will be

.SOUGHT WHO WILL." (p. 6.)

2. A second letter from Mr. R. Grundy to the Editor, vindicates the
Sectarians, as they are called, from the heavy charges brought a^-ainst
them, " as hypocritical, dishonest, seditious," &c., and affirms " they
have done more for the true good of Jamaica, than any other set of men
that ever stepped on its shores. Just think for a moment," he adds,
" what this country was forty or fifty years ago, before any dissenting
church was planted in it.

'-' When the parish Rectors used to baptise a parcel of poor Heathens in the
morning, and thus make some times as many as a hundred good Christians out
of them before night, and at the same time put a good round sum of money into
their own pockets for the job, while scarce ever afterwards did they, believing I
suppose that baptism is regeneration, trouble their heads about the moral state of
the new converts. And, Sir, what is it but these very Dissenters coming here
that has made all the change which we see, even in the Establishment itself? Is
it more than reasonable to suppose, that but for their being here to act like a whip
of many thongs, it would still be a great useless burthen upon the country, liv-
ing upon its fat tilings, and making no manner of return, just like that lazy
animal called the Sloth, that I once read about in a book of the history of beasts,
which is said to climb up a fine flourishing tree, and never leave it while it can
find a green leaf to feed on.

" May be you will say, good Sir, that all this is very harsh, but I ask you is
it not very true, as to what was the state of the Established Church formerly ?
Thank God it is different from this now ; though still far behind what it ought to
be, and wanting many a stroke of the cat-o'-nine tails just mentioned. The
great error into which its Ministers have fallen, and which 1 wish to speak about
in this letter, as appears to me, is the seeking of worldly patronage, and the striv-
ing to labour with worldly instruments. Into this grievous mistake the Bishop
has fallen, for he writes to Magistrates and Vestries asking them to help him in
his labours, while most of them are giving all their help quite another way. He

serious accusation ; and we must add that we fear they escaped the charge, be-
cause they sacrificed duty io conciliation. But what is the fact now, since latterly
a few of them have come forward to stem the torrent of false religion ? Why they
too have been assailed by the very same outcry ! They too hfive been denounced
as ' tools of the Anti-Slavery Society ! ! !' In short Evangelical, Sectarian, Anti-
Slavery, and seditious, are synonymous in Jamaica,"

so Effect of Slavery on Manners and Morals in Jamaica.

tj'ies to sail along with the current of bigotry and prejudice, when he ought to do
his best to workup the .stream. His Clergy are for the most part right good
fellows, boon companions of all the ungodly people about them, and dare not,
for their lives, do any thing to displease men so necessary to their comfort." " I
cannot mention a stronger instance of the endeavour to go hand in hand with pre-
judice, and gratify the wishes of the worldly people about them, than that one
which you have yourself often spoken strongly about. I mean the making Cate-
chists and religious teachers of immoral book-keepers. I hope and trust this
business is going to be soon put an end to. It is a disgrace, a crying shame to a
body of professedly Christian Ministers, to be playing into the hands of the enemy,
as they must do, by upholding such a system. I hope and trust the day is not
far off when the Bishop and all the Clergy will have their eyes fully opened to the
impossibility of doing God's work with such means as they know he cannot
bless, and I am sure it is your and my duty to pray for that day's speedy
coming." (p. 16.)

3. The Christian Record had been charged with exaggeration in the
account given in one of its early numbers of the "Libertinism of Jamaica."
(Reporter, vol. iv. No. 76, p. 137.) The Editors now come forward
to justify it by giving an avitlientic statement of the Baptisms of illegiti-
mate and legitimate free children in the different parishes of the Island,
in 1830, as taken from the Registry in the Bishop's office in Spanish-
town, (p. 24.) The account is confined to the free, there being no slave
children that can be called legitimate.

Return of Baptisms in Jamaica, from the \st January to the 2\st
December, 1830.

Illegitimate.

Legitimate.

Total.

St. Catherine

St. John

St. Dorothy

St. Thomas in the Vale

Clarendon

Vere

Manchester

St. Mary

St. Ann's

Kingston

Port Royal

St. Andrew

Portland

St. Thomas in the East . .

St. David

St. George

St. Elizabeth

Westmoreland .....

Trelawny

Hanover

St. James

78

7

5

8

23

7

53

25

37

174

25

37

40

35

9

13

116

49

84

21

112

34

5

2

6

9

5

7

11

12

109

24

38

5

9

2

7

28

■ 12

26

11

18

112
12
7
14
32
12
60
36
49

283
49
75
45
44
11
20

144
61

110
32

130

Total ....

958

380

1338

(These Illustrations to be continued.)
London:— S. Bagster, Jun., Piinter, Baitliolomew Close,

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER,

No. 94] FOR MARCH 10, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 3.

A CALM, AND AUTHENTIC REVIEW OF THE CAUSES, THE
COMMENCEMENT, AND THE PROGRESS TO A CERTAIN
PERIOD, OF THE INSURRECTION WHICH IS REPORTED
RECENTLY TO HAVE TAKEN PLACE AMONG THE SLAVES
IN THE COLONY OF JAMAICA.

A PAMPHLET was published, about the close of last year, by Mr.
Jeremie, the late President of the Royal Court of St. Lucia, and now
the King's Procureur General at the Mauritius, entitled, " Four
Essays on Colonial Slavery." This work, which has already reached
a second edition, has given a very striking and. most instructive view
of the nature of those occurrences which in Slave Colonies are digni-
fied with the imposing appellation of Insurrection. He had. been
the instrument in the hands of Government of framing, and afterwards
carrying into effect, a new code for the government and protection of
the slaves in the island, of St. Lucia. This code was extremely ob-
noxious at first to the planters of St. Lucia, and all the ordina,ry
means of opposing its introduction and thwarting its execution were tried,
in vain, having been rendered abortive, by the firmness and decision
of Mr. Jeremie. At length the hitherto never-failing expedient, in the
tactics of slave holders, of a servile insurrection, was thought of, and
got up with some effect. The main agents in the plot were the planters
themselves, aided by the influence of some members of the King's
Council, and of not a few of the public functionaries of the colony,
and countenanced even by General Stewart the governor. But the
case will be better understood if Mr, Jeremie is permitted to narrate
the facts.

About the close of 1828, or the beginning of 1829, the feeling be-
came very strongly prevalent in St. Lucia that Government wished to
relax the rigour of the laws which Mr. Jeremie had introduced ; and
as he proved inflexible, an attempt was made, by means of a pretended
insurrection, to get rid at once of him and of his obnoxious regulations.
The attempt indeed did not succeed ; but the matter was so represented
by the governor in his public despatches, as to produce the impression
at the Colonial Office that an insurrectionary movement had actually
taken place among the slaves. In consequence of this base and cri-
minal conduct, Mr. Jeremie " deemed it his duty to bring charges of
wilful and corrupt misrepresentation against two privy counsellors and
the secretary of government." (p. 100.) " The inquiry into these
charges was made in open court," and " the whole case will furnish
a tolerable insight of what is meant by a West Indian insurrection.
This," he adds, " was not the only occasion in St. Lucia when such
things were reported : but this transaction having gained rather more

31

82 Pretended Insurrection in St. Lucia of 1829.

notoriety, and the facts being proved beyond question, it forms a
tolerable example of the whole." He thus proceeds: —

" Rumours the most unfounded were at once set afloat, estates
were specified where the gangs were in utter disorder, nine or ten
especially, and one of them, where, owing to the slave law having
avowedly been neglected, the manager had been cautioned. This
estate was said to have been abandoned by the negroes ; some to have
fled — the whole to have so neglected their duty, that the produce (of the
boiling house) had diminished from 16 to 3 hogsheads a week. The
slaves, it was said, had fled to the woods, mountains, and ravines; —
negroes had been taken up with large bundles of newspapers of
the precise year when the slave law was promulgated, (1826,) and it
was added, that gangs from the most distant and unconnected quarters
had struck, and had also sought refuge in the woods, after destroying
their master's property, as manufacturers destroy machinery at home.

" Accordingly, militia detachments were sent out, headed by field
officers, in addition to two permanent detachments, in various direc-
tions, in search of the insurgents : five were sent out from one quarter,
— three from a second, — three from a third, — three from a fourth ;
and hundreds — aye, thousands, of ball cartridges, were distributed
throughout the country. The white troops were to be quartered on
the refractory estates ; and the planters in one of the quarters and its
neighbourhood were desired to turn out with their best negroes ; this
description of force alone amounting to several hundred men.

" Next, the governor himself went into the mountains, with a nu-
merous staff, to point out the exact plan of operations by which that
insurrectionary movement was to be put down. Then a militia order
was to be issued, and read at the head of the detachments, comparing
these various convulsions, (' though it had not quite reached that
height,') to the melancholy period of 1796, when it cost Great Britain
4,000 men, headed by Abercrombie, to restore order in St. Lucia
alone.

" Now, what was the fact? In the whole of that part of the island^
where the governor had taken on himself the direction of the troops ;
where these detachments, under their colonels, had scoured the woods,
mountains, and ravines ; it appeared there were exactly eight negroes
in the bush, including females. The bundles of newspapers were a
piece of wrapping paper, about the size of a man's hand, on which an
ignorant slave had made a few crosses, and produced as his pass.
The story of the destruction of property was a pure fiction. The
specific complaints proved to be worse than frivolous, and the only
gang, where there had been the least movement, was one with respect
to which the proprietor, on a subsequent inquiry, has been proved
never, since the promulgation of the slave law, to have clothed his
negroes, and where they had been made to get up to labour in the
field by moonlight. On that occasion, fifteen had left their owner in
the evening, and had presented themselves in the morning to the next
planter, to intercede for them. He had done so, and they had re-
turned quietly to work before any of these extraordinary measures
were taken.

Motion of Mr. Buxton, April 15, 1831. 83

'" In short, it was proved, that throughout the island only the usual
-average, 5 in 1,000, (taking the whole slave population) which is pro-
bably less than in the best disciplined regiments in the service, were
away from their estates ; and this too was at the very commencement
of crop, when the number of runaways is always largest.

" Again, in October, another panic was attempted to be created,
but was put down. Indeed, throughout the year, endeavours in every
shape were made to prove the impracticability of continuing these new
regulations,

" But how did the matter end ? By placing, beyond question, the
advantages resulting from them."

Mr. Jeremie proceeds to detail the evidence which produced this
satisfactory conviction, and thus closes his statement : —

" Such was the result of the fullest inquiry that could be held, not
at a distance from the spot, or with persons insufficiently defended,
but in the island itself, in the midst of their friends and partizans, —
partizans unbending in their prejudices, firm in their purpose, not over
scrupulous as to means, yet when they came to facts utterly impotent;
though provided with what they considered the best legal advice that
could be obtained in the West Indies ; — and this, too, in the very
island where measures of reform had made the greatest progress, and
where, avowedly, the authorities were firmly bent on seeing them ex-
ecuted to the letter.

" Here, then, is the testimony of the authors of the measure, of its
reluctant friends, and of its most determined opponents, backed by
official returns. Never could measure be more completely sifted."

If the very slightest doubt should be entertaiiied as to the accuracy
of these statements, by any gentleman in Parliament, and especially by
any of the numerous West India proprietors who crowd the benches
of the House of Commons, he has only to call for the evidence taken
in the course of this inquiry. It was officially transmitted to Downing
Street by Governor Farquharson, in December 1830, and is now depo-
sited in the office of the Secretary of State for the Colonial Depart-
ment. The purpose, for which these documents are now referred to,
will appear in the sequel of the remarks now offered to the public.
But it will first be necessary to turn to another part of the subject.

On the 15th of April, 1831, Mr. Buxton moved in the House of
Commons the following resolution : —

" That in its resolutions of the 15th of May, 1823, this House dis-
tinctly recognized the evils of colonial slavery, and the duty of taking
measures for its ultimate abolition : that, during the eight years which
have since elapsed, the Colonial Assemblies have not taken adequate
means for carrying those resolutions into effect : that, deeply im-
pressed with a sense of the impolicy, inhumanity, and injustice of
colonial slavery, the House will proceed forthwith to consider and
adopt the best means of effecting its abolition throughout the British
dominions."

To this motion an amendment was moved by Viscount Althorp, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the following purport : —

" That this House, in its resolutions of the 15th of May, 1823,

84 Motion mid Speech of Lord Althorp, April 15, 1831.

distinctly recapitulated the evils under which the slaves in the cdlo-
nies laboured, and the duty of the colonies to take decisive measures
to relieve the slave population, and to prepare the negroes for parti-
cipating in the privileges enjoyed by the other subjects of those
colonies. That in those colonies, where there are no legislative
assemblies, laws have been promulgated for ameliorating and im-
proving the condition of the slave population ; but in those which
have legislative assemblies, though eight years have elapsed since this
House passed the resolutions referred to, and though these colonies
have been repeatedly urged to enact similar laws, no such laws have
been enacted, nor have any measures been adopted to give effect to
the resolutions of this House, to the urgent opinions of the Govern-
ment, or to the wishes of the British nation."

And then, he said, he should propose a mode in which the colonies
would find that they had an interest to adopt the proposition before
made hy the House. The resolution he should propose was as follows:

" That in the rate of duties levied on the produce of the labour of
slaves, such a distinction shall be made as will operate in favour of
those colonies in which the resolutions of this House have been adopted
and the wishes of the Government complied with."

The noble Lord accompanied this proposition with a speech, in
which he stated, that while he could not concur in going the whole
length of Mr. Buxton's motion, he nevertheless was " a friend to the
abolition of slavery," " had always voted for it," and " felt the greatest
anxiety that the period should arrive when the emancipation of the
slaves might be safely undertaken," " Eight years ago a resolution
was passed, declaring they should be ultimately emancipated," and
" Orders in Council were issued to carry its spirit into eifect; but, up
to this time, in none of the colonial legislatures have the recommenda-
tions of the Crown been adopted." " It is impossible, then, for the
House to stand still." " We are now nearly in the same situation in
which we were in 1823." " We are called upon, then, not to stand
still," " Often have I heard Mr. Canning say from this bench, that fair
notice had been given to the colonists, and that unless they volun-
tarily complied, it would be necessary for the Government and for
this House to take some strong measures to enforce their determina-
tion. The time I think is now come to give notice to the colonists,
by other measures than those of mere recommendation. We must
adopt means to convince them that we are in earnest, and will perse-
vere in the steps we have recommended, and satisfy the country that
the resolutions we have passed were not intended to be a dead letter
on our table. On the other hand, I do not think the West Indian
interests should be surprised, after so long an interval, if Parliament
at length took steps to carry its will into effect. There are two modes
by which this may be done : it may be done by direct legislative in-
terference in colonial affairs — we may pass laws in the Imperial Par-
liament to impose regulations on the colonies ; but I admit this is a
step which I should wish very much to delay, although ultimately, if
the colonies persevere, it will be the bounden duty of Parliament to
act in such a manner. I agree with the object which the hon. gentle-

speech of Viscount Howick, April 15, 1831. 85

man has in view, but not exactly with the resolution by which he pro-
poses to effect it.

" This proposition calls on the Colonies for a compliance with
our wishes, by making an appeal to their interests. This appeal, I
admit, would not be a fair or justifiable proceeding, if we asked from
the colonies anything that was unreasonable ; but we ask nothing
of the sort — nothing which it has not already been proved might be
safely adopted — nothing which has not already been carried into ef-
fect with the utmost degree of security in the Crown colonies, and
which, indeed, has worked so well at St. Lucia, that that colony has
sent up an address to the Government, expressive of their approba-
tion of the measures which the Government has adopted, though they
state at the same time, that on the first appearance of these measures
they were viewed with some degree of prejudice. In conclusion, I
think it is impossible for any man to say that a state of slavery, whe-
ther productive of a diminution in the amount of population, or of any
other evil, is not to be regretted, and I am satisfied there is no man
in this House who will stand up and say that it is a state which it is
not desirable to get rid of. Every exertion ought to be made to rid
us of its presence. Of the evils of its existence we are assured, and
1 do not therefore see the advantage of appointing a Committee of In-
quiry. The point on which I put the case is, that the resolutions of
1823, were unanimously agreed to eight years ago — I put it on the
Orders in Council, and on the adoption of those orders in the Crown
colonies — an adoption which has been followed by nothing but the
most beneficial efi^ects — and, finally, on the fact that these resolu-
tions have been pressed upon the other colonies, but have not been
adopted. These are facts which we do not require a Committee of
Inquiry to make out. We know what are the laws that have been
adopted in the Crown colonies, and what are those that are in force
in the colonies which possess legislative assemblies ; and I therefore
think that a Committee of Inquiry would be useless, and that this
House, if it consults its own dignity, and the wishes of the country,
will do nothing but insist on the enforcement of the measures which,
on previous occasions, they have desired should be adopted."

This temperate but decided speech of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer was followed, at a later period of the debate, by one from
Viscount Howick, the Colonial Under Secretary of State. It is only a
part of this able speech, which on the present occasion, we shall have
occasion to cite, but that part has a most important bearing on the
subject of the present pamphlet.

" The Honourable and Learned Gentleman (Mr. Burge the Agent of
Jamaica) asks, if we mean to abandon the policy of 1823, and to sa-
crifice property ? For myself, I have no hesitation in answering in
the negative. I would, unquestionably, preserve the rights of pro-
perty, but I would not preserve them at the expense of the rights of
the slave. I object to immediate emancipation, for the sake of the
slaves themselves ;* but were I convinced that immediate emancipa-

* Is there then any really substantial ground for the apprehension implied in
this opinion ?

86 Speech of Viscount Hoivick, April 15, 1831.

tion could be effected with safety to the slaves, I should say, let it
take place at once; the planter might then, indeed, have a just claim
on the British nation, by whose encouragement and sanction he has
been induced to acquire the property of which he would be deprived.
It would be unjust that the whole penalty should fall on those who
have only shared the crime by which it has been incurred. But,
however large the claim of the West Indian for compensation may be,
I do not hesitate to say that it should not stand in my way for a mo-
ment, as weighed against the importance of putting an end to the
sufferings of the slaves. I consider the whole system of slavery one
of such deep oppression, and iniquity, and cruelty, that, if I could be
satisfied it v/as safe to emancipate the slaves now, I would say, ' Do
so, and do it at once ; and we will settle scores among ourselves
afterwards, and determine in what proportion the penalty of our guilt,
is to be paid ; but the victims of that guilt must not continue for one
hour .to suffer, v/hile we are haggling about pounds, shillings, and
pence.'*

" I confess I do feel more diflficulty in combating the resolution pro-
posed by my Honourable Friend the Member for Weymouth, than in
meeting the opposition with which we are threatened from the West
India body. But much as I abhor slavery, I feel that we could not
without danger adopt the course proposed. On mature consideration,
I feel that it would not be safe to the colonists, nor advantageous to
the slaves themselves, that slavery should be abolished immediately
and at once ; and I believe that the course which my Honourable
Friend, the Member for Weymouth, proposes for our adoption, would
be attended with many dangers. Even if I were prepared to agree to
actual emancipation, I should object to that course. I consider that
the only wise mode of carrying it into effect would be by a full and
detailed measure ; and, until some safe and practical plan of eman-
cipation is laid down before the House, I shall protest against the
adoption of resolutions, which could have no other possible effect but
that of irritating the master, and of exciting in the breast of the slave
expectations which must be disappointed. We had lately a tragica
instance of the effect of vague expectations on the minds of slaves ;
and if the slave should come to know that it was declared, by so high
an authority as this House, that he was entitled to his freedom, and
should yet find that he was left for months and years in unmitigated
slavery — if he should be left in this state of high-raised expectation
and actual suffering, I cannot contemplate the consequences without
shuddering, t

" I should not propose, at once, to emancipate a large number of
slaves if I had the power of doing so ; I should not emancipate ten.
to-day, and ten more to-morrow : I should rather take off a part of
the v/eight of slavery, and endeavour gradually to assimilate the slave

* Compare these sentiments with the Anti-Slavery Reporter, Nos. 70 and 75,
■and their coincidence will appear very remarkable.

t This is just; but is it not the very best reason why the measure should .be
prompt, immediate and irresistible ? See Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 70.

speech of Viscount Hawick, April 15, 183L 87

to the freeman.* If the House sanctions the resolutions proposed by
my Noble Friend, an amended Order in Council, now in course of
preparation, will be issued — the adoption of which, word for word, it
is proposed to render imperative upon every colony v*'hich seeks for
the indulgence it holds out. In this Order will be embodied the im-
provements referred to in the different Orders of Council issued by
Lord Bathurst, and by the Right Honourable Gentleman opposite.
(Sir G. Murray.) We shall, therefore, continue to advance towards
our great object, on the same principle on which we set out.

"The honourable and learned gentleman (Mr. Burge) complains that
we propose to do more than Lord Bathurst proposed. But I contend
that it was never the intention of Lord Bathurst to stop short at what
he first proposed. In his first despatch Lord Bathurst uses these ex-
pressions : — ' These suggestions are not to be understood as afford-
ing a full developement of the intentions of his Majesty's Government ;
but merely as recommending such changes as may be conveniently
adopted at present ; and as may lay the foundation for further and
more effectual measures of improvement.' And the same principle
was distinctly laid dov>^n by the Right Honourable Gentleman oppo-
site, during the last year, in the circular with which he accompanied
the amended Order in Council. The proposed new Order in Council
will proceed upon the principle laid down by Mr. Canning, that no
regulation for the benefit of the slave which has been adopted in one
colony, can be considered impracticable in any, and that by collect-
ing every thing good which has been found successful in any colony,
and applying it to all the other colonies, a great advance will be ef-
fected. Such an Order in Council is now in preparation, embodying
every improvement which has already been tried with success, either
in our own colonies or in those of any other Power, and, without
adopting any new principle, supplying any defects which have been
discovered in the manner of carrying irto execution what has already
been attempted. Other and pressing business has prevented the Go-
vernment from giving that attention to the details which is necessary
before it can be finally issued. It was my most anxious wish that,
previous to this debate, it should have been before the House. This
Order in Council will be sent out to the colonies with the intimation
that, to entitle them to the indulgence which it is intended to hold
out, they must adopt it word for word, without addition or alteration.

" The honourable and learned gentleman (Mr. Burge) complains
that this is an improper interference with the internal regulations of
the colonies. It is what it professes to be, a measure of coercion, but
it is not a legislative interference with the internal regulations of the
colonies. That we have a right so to interfere, in common with my
noble friend, I most strenuously maintain. And if the measures now
proposed fail, — if they do not turn out according to our wishes, — I
shall contend that we have not only the right, but that it will be our
duty to interfere by direct legislation. But, Sir, there is another

* Yet Government have at once emancipated 2000 slaves of their own, with-
out any apprehension, and without any evil consequence arising from the measure.

88 Speegh of Viscount Howick, April 15, 1831.

reason which seems to have escaped the honourable and learned
gentleman, for making the proposed distinction, in the duty on their
produce, in favour of those colonies which adopt the measures we re-
commend. What is the motive for all the hardships which the slaves
are liable to ? Slavery is maintained chiefly for the purpose of raising
sugar, and if we admit the sugar raised by the labour of slaves on the
same terms, whether or not the regulations are enforced which we
think necessary for their protection, and for the amelioration of their
condition, are we not parties to the guilt of maintaining the system in
all its barbarity ?

" This country has the clear right to disclaim all participation in
such a system, and to say, I will not encourage so objectionable a
system ; .1 will not receive the produce of the labour of slaves unless
you assure me that no cruelty is practised in raising it. All that now
remains for me to do is, to endeavour to shew to the House that, by the
measure we propose, a great practical improvement will be effected in
the condition of the slaves. The changes already introduced into the
Crown colonies, with the farther improvements which are in contem-
plation, will, I trust, be speedily adopted in every colony under the
British dominion ; and, supposing this to be the case, let me call to the
recollection of the House how great a change will be effected in the
condition of the slaves in Jamaica. In the first place, the banishment
of the whip from the field will in itself effect a complete change in the
character of slavery. The Negro now labours under the continual
dread of the most severe bodily suffering. Any relaxation of the in-
tensity of labour causes the lash immediately to be applied. By this
means that degree of labour is obtained in our colonies which is found
to be so fatally destructive to human life. Now, Sir, the system of
driving, under v.'hich both men and women at present labour in Ja-
maica, will be abolished ; the use of the whip, with regard to women,
will no longer be permitted at all ; in cases of punishing men, not
more than fifteen lashes will be allowed to be inflicted in the space of
twenty-four hours, and this not until six hours after the commission of
a specific offence. The nature of the oflence, and the amount of
punishment inflicted, must also be recorded in a book to which the
protector of slaves will have access. Instead of seeing the whip
continually brandished over him, the slave will be only subject, in case
of a specific offence, to not more than fifteen lashes in the twenty-four
hours, inflicted six hours after the offence has been committed, and
the punishment awarded. Many honourable members who have not
considered the subject, may not be aware of the great importance of
this change. It is a radical change, I may say, in the system ; for it
is the substitution of one motive to exertion, one stimulus to labour,
for another. The prospect of punishment will be sufficient to prevent
the slave from refusing to work ; but it is not -enough to extort from
him the last degree of human exertion, which is done when the whip
is continually brandished over his head. The driver may say to the
slave, ' If you don't take care, you shall have fifteen lashes in the
evening;' but he cannot continue that threat — its force will be speedily
exhausted. While the slave-owner is allowed to employ the whip in

speech of Viscount Howick, April 15, 1831. 89

the field, he can extort the labour of the slave by the constant stimu-
lus of fear, but if you deprive him of this power, if you reduce the whip
to an instrument of discipline, you impose on the planter the necessity
of finding- out some other stimulus, and tliis, in some shape or other,
must be hope. It will probably be the hope of some indulgence it is
in the master's power to bestow, for it is not to be expected at present
that the master will give his slave wages ; this is a farther step in our
progress ; but he will apply the stimulus of hope in another manner ;
he will probably find it impossible to compel the slave to work as
hard as he is able during a certain number of hours, and will be in-
duced to give him task-work to a reasonable amount. The task must
necessarily be within the utmost exertions which the Negro could
make ; and the sooner he performed his labour, the sooner he would
enjoy a respite from it. By this change we shall reduce the vs?hip to
an instrument of punishment, and it will be no longer, as it now is, a
stimulus to labour. The slave will no longer be like a horse in a team,
who works through fear of blows, and we shall convert him from a
brute beast to a rational animal. We shall appeal to the reason and
the hopes of the slave, and not to his instinct and his fears — this will
be a great change.

" The next point is the separation of families, which will be effec-
tually guarded against. Without entering into any discussion on this
point, I may observe that the separation of families is not guarded
against by the laws of Jamaica ; but that, by the measures proposed,
it will be effectually prevented. In the same manner the right of
compulsory manumission will be fully established. And here I cannot
refrain from alluding to what has fallen from, the honourable and
learned gentleman on the subject of compulsory manumission. The
honourable and learned gentleman has contended that it is unjust to
compel a master to dispose of his own slave against his will — to sell
his oy^n freehold property . This observation shocked me more than I
can describe. Is it not the ordinary practice of the British Legislature
to compel a man to dispose of his own freehold property when it is for
the public convenience ? Does the honourable and. learned gentle-
man mean to say that it is unfair to make a man part with his slave
for the value of that slave, when we every day compel a man to part
with his property for the mere convenience of the public ? When, for
the purpose of constructing a rail-road or a turnpike-road, we compel,
by an Act of the Legislature, any man to sell property which he has
neither acquired nor holds by guilt, or with a shadow of injustice, and
this, too, upon the mere ground of convenience, is it to be said that
we are to be barred from pursuing the same course when justice is
concerned, and where the subject of the compulsory sale is that which
no man can have acquired, or can retain, innocently — the freedom of
an unoffending slave — the birthright of every human being ?

" I did hear with astonishment this argument of the honourable
and learned gentleman, and though it excited a great sensation in the
House, I wonder that the sensation was not infinitely greater."

" It is also proposed to allow the slave to purchase the freedom of
his children. A slave will frequently be enabled to purchase the

N

90 Speech of Viscount Hoivick, Ajiril 15, 1831,

freedom of liis child when he could not purchase his own. When a
child is first born, it is of little value to the master, and he would be
inclined, for a small sum in possession, to give up the contingent
profit to be derived from the labour of the child. On the other hand,
in many instances, I believe the negro v/ill be ready to pay a large
sum, to exempt his oftspring from the evils of that condition under
which he is himself suffering. As to the due observance of the
Sabbath, that is to be provided for by the most complete regulations.
Not only will the slave be protected against being called on for the
performance of any manner of labour on the Sabbath-day, but his
free access to places of public worship will also be secured ;* the
hours of labour will also be carefully limited ; and the insufficiency
of food guarded against. I think I have now, though I am aware
most inadequately and imperfectly, stated the great change in the
condition of the Jamaica negro which will be effected, when the
Order in Council, which we propose to issue, shall become law in that
island. I hope, however, 1 have said enough to shew, that a great
and substantial improvement will have taken place. I trust the House
will see that this is not a mere attempt on the part of the Government to
get out of a popular question, but a real step, and a decided advance
in our progress towards that result, in which we are bound to persevere
until we arrive at it. The measures proposed hold out a prospect of
doing something effectual, and, therefore, I conceive that they are
entitled to a fair trial. All I ask is, that we should give to these
measures a fair trial before we proceed to others, which, if more
speedy in their operation, are of more questionable safety — which are
of such a nature, that one false step may lead to irreparable conse-
quences. If the plan does not answer my confident expectations, I
shall acknowledge that, after no long delay, it will be our duty to
enter into the consideration of some such plan as that contemplated
by my Honourable Friend.

" I entirely concur with my Honourable Friend in the principle he
has laid down, that it is the bounden duty of Parliament to put an
end to the monstrous system which now exists. All I contend for is,
caution in the manner of doing it. I hope my Honourable Friend
will give a trial to the plan we propose ; and I hope further, that such
a plan having been proposed, he will not think it necessary to press
his motion to a division."

The House did not divide upon the question. The debate was ad-
journed for ten days, and in the mean time parliament was dissolved.
It will probably be renewed ere long.

Highly creditable to these two noble lords, as were the principles
avowed, and the feelings expressed by them on that occasion, it was
but too manifest to all, who had assiduously watched the progi'ess of
the anti-slavery controversy, that at least as far as respected the
chartered colonies, the course it was proposed to pursue, was not likely
to produce speedily a beneficial result, but might issue not merely

* The new Order, it is to be deeply deplored, fails in both these particulars.
See the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 92, p. 20 — 27, and p. 31 & 32.

Insurrectio7i in Barbadoesof 1816. 91

in delay, but in disappointment and perhaps disaster. This had
been the uniform effect of prospective notices of parliamentary inter-
ference, whenever, as in the present instance, the colonists believed
them to be given vpith a serious intention of being carried into effect.
No measures of reform which have tended, in even a remote degree,
to the abridgment of the power of the master, or the ultimate extinc-
tion of slavery, however strenuously recommended by the Govern-
ment, have ever been proposed to the deliberation of the colonial
authorities, without exciting a general clamour among the planters,
and leading them to have recourse to such expedients as might seem
best fitted to avert the apprehended interference. Among these ex-
pedients, that which has been most frequently adopted, and has
pi'oved the most successful, has been the creation of alarms, in the
public mind of this country, on the subject of servile insurrection.

Accordingly when Mr. Wilberforce, in 1815, gave notice that it
was his intention, in the ensuing session of Parliament, to move for
leave to bring in a bill for the due registration of colonial slaves,
the very proposition to interfere, by direct parliamentary enactment,
with the subject of slavery, excited a universal clamour throughout
the whole extent of the West Indies. That clamour, however, met
with so feeble a response in this country, and seemed, to every unpre-
judiced mind, to be so wholly misplaced, that it would probably have
entirely failed of its object, but for the servile insurrection which so
seasonably occurred in Barbadoes, and of which the intelligence
reached this country, only a few days before that which Mr. Wilber-
force had fixed for the second reading of his bill. The consequence
was — its rejection.

It certainly is difficult to conceive how an act for the Registration
of slaves, should have been confounded, even by West Indian preju-
dice, with an act for their emancipation. But such was the con-
struction which the colonists chose to put upon it. They felt that a
precedent of parliamentary legislation, on the subject of slavery,
might open a way to ulterior measures which might involve the
dreaded result, and they therefore assailed it with a vehemence which
has scarcely been surpassed in any subsequent stage of the contro-
versy. In JBarbadoes, especially, the clamorous rage manifested by
the white portion of the community, at this alleged measure of enfran-
chisement, was such, that it would not have been surprising had the
slaves been led to suppose that it was really the pur^iose of Govern-
ment to emancipate them, and that that purpose was only frustrated
by the resistance of their masters. But this, though a very natural
conclusion, does not appear to have had the very slightest influence
in producing the tumult and the carnage which so opportunely ar-
rested all parliamentary interference at that time. A plantation
brawl between the slaves and their manager, a matter of frequent occur-
rence in all slave colonies, happened to take place, in the neighbour-
hood of Bridgetown, the capital of the island, the white inhabitants
of which were at the time in an extraordinary degree of excitement,
and ready to credit any rumour however extravagant. The intelli-
gence was soon conveyed to that place, and the troops stationed

92 Insurrection in Barbadoes of 1816.

there, but especially the insular militia, chiefly composed of the low
whites, rushed to the scene of disorder, and commenced the work of
death with undistinguishing fury. They met with no resistance. The
slaves fled and were pursued in all directions. At least 1000 of them
were massacred in cold blood, and some hundreds more had already
been suspended on gibbets before Sir James Leith the Governor, who
was on a visit to a neighbouring island, returned, and put some stop
to this wanton effusion of blood.*

This melancholy transaction was of course at once dignified with the
name of the Barbadoes insurrection, although it has never been official-
ly announced, nor is it known, that a single white person fell by Negro
violence, or that a single plantation was set fire to by the slaves.
Much property, it is true,v/as destroyed on the occasion. The militia,
it was admitted, had burnt down the Negro houses, on all the planta-
tions which were considered as disturbed, from motives, it was said,
of policy ; and how far these conflagrations may have extended to
cane-pieces or to works it is impossible to say. But the most remark-
able circumstance in the whole of this dark and bloody transaction
was this, that the Colonial administration of that day refused to lay
the Despatches of Sir James Leith before Parliament, and that the
West Indians acquiesced without a murmur in that refusal. If the
statement now made should be controverted, all that can be desired
is, that the Despatches in question may noiv be prodviced. No pre-
tence of danger can be alleged, nov/, as then, for refusing to disclose
them to the public.

Here, then, we have exhibited to our view the real nature of a
servile insurrection, applied to the purpose, (if not got up for the pur-
pose,) of upholding Colonial slavery in all its malignity, and averting
the interference of Parliament for its mitigation or extinction. The suc-
cess of the expedient resorted to was so complete that for seven long
years no attempt at such interference was renewed. Government and
Parliament contented themselves with passing some barren resolutions
on the subject of Colonial reform, which were understood by the Co-
lonists, to mean nothing ; and which produced no results whatever.
After their defeat of Mr. Wilberforce's bill, they quietly resumed
their cart-whips, and for these seven long years, slavery, with all its

* The slaughter of 1000 or 2000 slaves must have been attended, it maybe
said with such severe loss to individual proprietors, that no one will beheve that
that loss would have willingly been incurred without an overpowering sense of
danger. But it ought to be recollected, that in such cases, according to the
standing policy of Colonial legislation, individual proprietors are always indem-
nified by the public for slaves executed or transported or otherwise devoted to the
public service. And perhaps no impost was ever less complained of by the
white community of Barbadoes than this, which might be regarded as a cheap
premium for the security it had purchased from any future invasion of the im-
prescriptible rights of colonial despotism. This remark may be applied to all
other cases of a similar description. This policy however smells of blood. It
has been reprobated by successive Secretaries of State, but it still disgraces every
Colonial Statute Book, and bears we are sorry to say, the stamp of royal appro--
feation.

Resolutions of 1823 — DeMerara Insurrection. 93

attendant crimes, went on without disturbance. In 1822, the country
and the government were again roused to the consideration of the
subject, by some well-timed publications which fastened, on the minds
of His Majesty's Ministers, a conviction that they could no longer
decline the duty of attempting to abate this nuisance. Hence the
well known resolutions of the 15th of May, 1823, moved by Mr. Can-
ning, and the consequent communications of Earl Bathurst to the
different Colonial Governors, containing His Majesty's recommenda-
tions of Reform, backed by the resolutions of Parliament, and by the
voice of the people of England, and declaring, in terms the most ex-
press, " the NECESSITY of proceeding to carry these improvements into
effect, not only ivith all possible dispatch, but in the spirit of perfect
and cordial co-operation with the efforts of His Majesty's government;"
and if any serious opposition should arise, he would " take the earliest
opportunity of laying the matter before Parliament, and, submitting,
for their consideration, such measures as it may befit to adopt in con-
sequence."

No sooner did this despatch arrive in the Colonies than the clamour
of 1816 was renewed with similar fury. Lord Bathurst, judging of
Colonial feelings by his own, which had never been sophisticated by
holding the lash over a parcel of crouching slaves, preferred exercising,
even towards the planters of the Crown Colonies, a generous confi-
dence, by giving to them also, in the first instance, as well as to the
chartered colonies, a deliberative choice with respect to His Majesty's
recommendations. What was the consequence? Demerara, which,
had the King spoken to them by an Order in Council, would have at
once submitted, and taken, as their best remedy, the necessary means
for preserving the peace of the Colony, joined the general clamour
with more than the common licence. The outcry reached the slave.
A number of them were proceeding to the Governor to learn from him
the real state of the case. The very act of assembling for that pur-
pose, though in a peaceable manner, was deemed rebellion, and the
work of slaughter soon commenced. They were hunted and shot like
wild beasts ; numbers were gibbeted by the summary sentence of
courts. martial, and others had their flesh torn from their quivering
limbs by cruel whippings, to the extent of even a thousand lashes,
and to crown all, the Missionary Smith, who had taught the poor
slaves those Christian lessons of mercy which had withheld their
hands from shedding blood (for no white suffered from their violence),
Avas arraigned as a traitor, tried Avith a solemn mockery of all the
established rules of justice, and condemned to die as a felon.*

All this might have been prevented had the Government of the day
exercised its unquestionable right of commanding those measures to
be enforced, on the planters of Demerara, which they chose rather to
recommend to their adoption.

* The powerful exposure of the whole of this case, made in the House of Com-
mons, by Mr. Brougham, now the Lord High Chancellor of England, will never
be forgotten by any who had the happiness to witness that extraordinary display
of genius in the cause of liberty, justice, and national honour.

94 Insurrection in Jamaica of 1823-4

But in addition to the bloody tragedy in Demerara, the public ear
was assailed with incessant rumours of plots from other places; from
St. Lucia, Trinidad, Dominica, Barbadoes,&c.&c. In Jamaica alone,
however, was any confirmation given to the rumour, by the shedding
of innocent blood. The absolute destitution of all proof of any servile
plot in that island, though not a few lives were sacrificed to give it
some colour of reality, is now matter of history. The powerful ex-
position of Mr. Denman, the present Attorney-General, in the House
of Commons, forced, from the Ministers and Law Officers of the
Crown, a reluctant admission of the absence of all rational evidence
of a conspiracy, and of the headlong impetuosity with which men
were hurried to the scaffold, (we allude particularly to the pretended
conspirators of St. Mary and St. George,) on grounds which would
not, under any other rule than that of slave holders, have justified a
waiTant of commitment. Even of the imperfect and altogether unsatis-
factory evidence produced, much was afterwards found to have been su-
borned. But still the end was gained; — alarm was spread ; — the march
of reformation was arrested ; — and the pledge of parliamentary in-
terference, given by Mr. Canning and Earl Bathurst, postponed, sine
die.

If any doubt should be entertained of the correctness of these
statements, we have only to refer for their proof to a document laid
on the table of the House of Commons, and printed by its order, on
the 1st of March, 1825, No. m, p. 37—132 ;— to the records of the
debate which took place in that House on the subject of the Jamaica
trials on the 2d of March, 1826 ;— and to a pamphlet published by
Hatchard, in 1825, and re-published in 1826, entitled "The Slave
Colonies of Great Britain, or a picture of Negro Slavery, drawn by
the Colonists themselves." (p. 35 — 64.)

Here again we have a second servile insurrection, excited just at the
critical moment when it was especially needed to avert the threatened
interference of Parliament, and it was unhappily attended by the
same complete success as before. It has now, therefore, we presume, be-
come the tried and approved specific for such occasions, and nothing
could have more happily illustrated its real nature and objects than
the circumstances of the St. Lucia rumoured insurrection brought to
light by Mr. Jeremie, in his admirable work already referred to
above, (p. 81 — 83.) This last, however, through his vigilance and sa-
gacity, was fortunately bloodless.

Under such impressions, v/hich are the impressions of almost all
impartial men Avho have studied with attention the course of our Co-
lonial history, it will not be matter of surprise, that when on the 15th
of April, 1831, the fixed determination of His Majesty's Ministers
was announced, at length to redeem the pledges, respecting Colonial
Reform, given by the Government and Parliament in 1823, the
usual and. hitherto successful expedient, for defeating this purpose,
should have been again resorted to. In the Crown Colonies, indeed,
where nothing was to be left to the choice and deliberation of the
planters, but where an Order of the King in Council was at once to
frame and promulgate the requisite provisions, and to enforce their

Effect of Parliamentary Proceedings o/ 1831 in Jamaica. 95

due execution by adequate sanctions and penalties, no resistance or
even disturbance wjis to be apprehended. In the Chartered Colonies
an Act of Parliament, embodying that Order, would have been
equally efficacious, and equally safe. The planters might and would
grumble at the laws which restrained their power within due bounds,
but we should have had no resistance which the firm and temperate
execution of the Act would not at once have repressed. Submission,
on the part of the planters, must have followed as a matter of course;
and the gratitude of the slave, for the benefits conferred upon him,
would have secured his peaceful demeanour. He would have valued
too highly and felt too deeply the blessings of such an alleviation of
his condition, as the promulgation and enforcement of that Act would
have produced, not to have shrunk from the slightest movement which
could interfere with its beneficent operation. The very remission of
the intense and continuous labour now exacted from him, under the
stimulus of the lash ; the very idea that the exposed body of wife or
daughter could no more be lacerated by the cart-whip, would have
been felt in every pulse of his frame, and have enlivened all the
charities of domestic life.

Instead of an Act, however, conferring even these partial allevia-
tions of his lot, came out only the annunciation, in the public papers,
that such an Act would be recommended Xo the adoption of the
Colonial Assemblies, under pain of fiscal inflictions on such as should
reject the recommendation.

The slaves, it may be supposed, were not wholly unapprized of this
intelligence ; and though the assurance of alleviation was so remote,
they appear to have manifested no symptom of impatience, nor the
slightest wish to disturb the public peace. And it seemed to be the
uniform opinion of all classes of the free community, from the governor
downwards, that, as far as the slaves were concerned, no indications
whatever of insubordination had appeared in any quarter of the Island
during the months which intervened between the arrival of the intel-
ligence in question and the close of the year. And this state of
tranquillity was the more remarkable when contrasted with the extra-
ordinary excitement which the intelligence produced among the white
colonists.

Immediately as it became known to the planters of Jamaica, they
seemed to arise as one man, vehemently to protest against the menaced
violation of their " dearest rights." The clamour became loud and
universal. During the months of July, August, and September
public meetings were convened in almost every parish in the Island.
Speeches were delivered and resolutions passed there, of the most un-
measured and inflammatory description, in which resistance to the
mother country, and the renunciation of the King's allegiance were
distinctly threatened ; and similar language was used, even within the
walls of the Assembly. It would be endless to detail the whole of
these proceedings, partaking almost all of the character of rebellion
and revolt; but it is necessary, for the clear understanding of the
case, that some specimen of them should be laid before the public.

The first meetings which took place appear to have been held in

96 Parochial Resolutions of Jamaica, 1831.

the very parishes of St, James and Trelawney, which have been thei
almost exclusive scenes of the late disturbances. In the former, Mr.
Grignon, who since stands distinguished as Colonel Grignon, in the
recent despatch of Lord Belmore, took the lead and proposed the re-
solutions. The same office was performed in Trelawney by Mr. Frater,
a member of the House of Assembly, whose name will be found not
very honourably associated with the case of a poor Mulatto female
slave of the name of Eleanor Mead, recorded in the third volume of
the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 64, p. 346, and No. 71, p. 484. No
man can read that authentic account of the harsh, unfeeling, and even
brutal conduct of this person, and not augur ill from the result of any
proceeding relative to slaves, in which he took a part and still more a
lead.

The following are some of the resolutions of Trelawney : —

" Resolved, that the means devised by a faction in the House of
Commons to deprive us of our property, if carried into effect, cannot
fail to create a servile war of too horrible a nature to contemplate,
and that any person who attempts to produce or promote such war is
an enemy to his country."

" Resolved, that the conduct of the British Government in taxing
us higher than other subjects ; in fostering our enemies and listening
to their falsehoods against us ; in rejecting statements from impartial
persons in our favour; in allowing designing men, under the saintly
cloak of religion, not only to pilfer our peasantry of their savings, but
also to sow discontent and rebellion amongst them ; in threatening
to withdraw troops, for whose protection we have doubly paid, and
which we might claim as our right, at a time a servile war may be ap-
prehended ; is_most heartless, and in violation of justice, humanity,
and sound policy."

The resolutions proceed to state, that " thrown " as they are about
be, " as a prey before misguided savages, we have no other alterna-
tive than to resist ;" and to pray the King " that we maybe absolved
from our allegiance, and allowed to seek that protection from another
nation which is so unjustly and cruelly withheld from us by our own."

The resolutions of St. James, proposed by Mr. Grignon, are in a
similar strain. They talk of civil war and bloodshed, and. renun-
ciation of allegiance, with a levity which shews that they thought
only of the impression such language would produce in England ;
and set wholly at nought the impression it might make on the slaves
around them.

In St. Thomas in the East, the resolutions, alluding to the fiscal
regulations by which Government proposed to enforce the adoption of
the reforms contained in the new Order in Council, state that if
their constitutional rights are thus to be infringed, upon, " whether by
the sword, or by a system of robbery, under the name of fiscal regu-
lation," the attempt " will be resisted by every means in our power,
and to the last extremity."

Again, " That never can the West Indian Colonists hesitate between
resistance in a just cause, however unequal the contest, or submission
to the merciless fangs of a bigoted faction, who most basely revile

Parochial Resolutions of Jamaica, 1831. 97

and persecute us, nay, who thirst for our very blood, as evinced by
the desire expressed in their frantic publications, to see the knife at
«ur throats — to stand by and cheer on the blacks to our destruction."

One of the resolutions generaUy adopted in the different parishes
4ias respect to the establishment, in each, of a permanent militia to
protect their lives and property from the designs of His Majesty's
ministers, Avhile we seek, say the men of St. John, " protection uiider
some other power where we may secure to ourselves a peaceful enjoy-
ment of life and property." " Possessing, as we do, British feelings
and honour," say the inhabitants of St, George, " we here publicly
declare, that we will never submit to the spoliation of our property
without a spirited and desperate resistance."

The people of St. Ann resolve, " That hitherto, under the most
marked infractions of our rights and principles, we have been loyal.
Our attachment to the Mother-country has indeed long, very long,
outlived her justice, and it would now be with grief that we should
divest ourselves of a feeling which ' has grown with our growth, and
strengthened with our strength,' but when we see ourselves scorned,
betrayed, devoted to ruin and slaughter, delivered over to the enemies
of our country, we consider that we are bound by every principle —
human and divine — TO RESIST."

All the resolutionists concur with a surprising unanimity in de-
claring, that to comply with the wishes of Government on the subject
of the treatment of slaves, (of course as expressed in the new Order
in Council, for that embodies those wishes,) would be " to submit to
annihilation," to incur "entire ruin." It may be well therefore, to
look back to p. 88, to see what it really is which it was proposed
to I'equire, and which has excited all this violence on the part of the
planters. A slight glance at the measures which have roused their
rage, will do more than volumes of controversy, or the accumulation-
of oral evidence, to place, in the clear blaze of day, the real character of
colonial bondage. Whatever may be the feelings of the resolu-
tionists on the subject, it cannot be that the slaves should not be
glad to learn that it is the purpose of Government to appoint pro-
tectors for them; to put down the driving-whip; to forbid the flogging
of women ; to legalize their marriages ; to prevent the separation of
families by sale; to secure to them the enjoyment of their property;
to admit their testimony in Courts of Justice ; to allow them to buy
their freedom, or that of their children at a fair price ; to secure to
them the rest of the Sabbath ; to provide them with sufficient food
and clothing ; and to prevent their being forced to labour beyond
their strength, by duly limiting their hours of labour. These points
comprise nearly all that the Government have required, and it is their
horror of these enactments which has led the planters of Jamaica to
declare themselves ready to resist the lawful authority of the King
and Parliament, even unto blood.

And yet, who are the people who thus bluster and set at defiance
the power of the parent state? The whole white population of Ja-
maica does not exceed 14,500, men, women, and children. The nu-
merical force of the white militia, if they Avere all collected into one

o

98 Conduct of the WJiite Community of Jamaica.

pointy would not amount to 4000 men of all arms, and this supposes
every man from sixteen to sixty to wield a weapon. AYhy the king's
troops stationed in the island, whose business it would be to repress
the violence, and secure the submission, of these noisy insurgents, are
nearly as numerous, and far more effective ; besides the 40,000 free
persons of colour, who would to a man resist the slightest movement
towards a transfer of allegiance to any other state whatever ; and
still more the 330,000 slaves, whose interests and feelings would of
course be deeply embarked on the side of loyalty. — What can equal
the folly and senselessness of such language in such circumstances !
They resort to it only because they trust to its having some effect on
the public mind in England.

The Resolutions, which we have cited above, continued for several
months to fill all the newspapers in the island, and their nature and
object could not fail to be known to the slaves, who saw their masters
in a state of almost open war with the supreme authorities of the
empire, on measures intimately connected with their comfort and
happiness. And yet amidst all this clamour and excitement, they
maintained a calmness and forbearance which might well have put
to shame their superiors. The public peace continued unbroken to
such a degree that, towards the end of November, a member of the
Assembly, who had distinguished him.self as a supporter of the Ultra
Colonial party, had the good sense to perceive that now was the very
time to make concessions, by which the interference of parliament
might be obviated ; and he proposed to bring in bills to abolish female
flogging and to sanction the principle of compulsory manumission.
After considerable debate the propositions were rejected, the first,
by a majority only of 27 against 3, and the second by a majority of
34 against 2. This was about the beginning of December.

Still not a symptom of insubordination was visible among the
slaves, notwithstanding the natural tendency of all that had thus
been passing, in their sight and hearing, on questions to them of the
most vital interest. Nor does it appear that apprehensions of dis-
order were entertained by the most timid, until the very eve of the
alleged servile insurrection, which did not occur until the Christmas
week, the closing week of the yea,r.

Having brought these preliminary details to this point, it will be
necessary to put the reader in possession of some other circumstances
with which he may not be acquainted, but which are essential to a
right understanding of this whole case.

It had always been the custom in Jamaica to allow to the slaves
three holidays at Christmas, during which no limit was put to the
licence of their amusements, provided it did not interfere with the
public peace. These three days were in fact their Saturnalia, and
the complete relaxation of the ordinary restraints of slavery during
their continuance, was of course very highly prized by the slave. As
West Indians in this country may affect to doubt the correctness of
this statement, we refer them to an authority which they will be
loth to gainsay, we mean that of Mr. Alexander Barclay, a Member of
the Jamaica Assembly, and who after more than twenty years' resi-

Leliu and Usage of Jamaica as to Christmas. 9D

ilence in that island, undertook to refute Stephen's Delineation of
Slavery, and to defend the whole West India system, against the
formidable attacks of that gentleman and of all its enemies. So
highly valued is this work by the West Indians, that they have gone
to an expense of several thousand pounds in giving it circulation.
Now what is Mr. Barclay's account of this matter ? We quote from
the edition of 1826 of his " Practical View of the present State
of Slavery," p. 13.

"While on the subject of Christmas," he says, "I may observe
that THE v/HOLE of the negroes in Jamaica have three, and some
of them FOUR days allowed for their amusements ; and that on this
occasion their masters give them an allowance of rum, sugar, and
codfish or salt meat." After adding some additional circumstances
of indulgence, he concludes with this reflection :

"To many who contemplate the West Indian labourers" (not
slaves) "as 'wretches born to work and weep;' who have them
associated in their minds with horrors, cruel oppression, and broken
heartedness, the description I have given may appear a picture alto-
gether imaginary, but let such persons ask any one who has been upon
a Jamaica plantation, at a Christmas season, if the description is not
correct."

Admitting it to be so, it will serve to throw some light on the "hor-
rors, cruel oppressions, and broken heartedness" which have accom-
panied the Christmas revels of 1831,- in one district of Jamaica.

We have quoted Mr. Barclay at present, chiefly for the purpose of
proving, by the best testimony of which the case admits, that the
whole of the Negroes of Jamaica had usually three days allowed
them for their amusements at Christmas.

This is fully confirmed by the terms of the 28th clause of the Act
passed by the Jamaica Assembly in 1826, but which was disallowed
by the King in Council on account of its persecuting clauses. The
terms are : —

" And be it further enacted, that for the future all slaves in this
island shall be allowed the usual number of holidays that are alloived
at the usual seasons of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, provided
that at every such respective season no 7nore than three holidays shall
be allowed to follow or succeed immediately one after the other, any
law, custom, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding."

In the Slave Act passed in 1829, and which was also disallowed,
the Assembly first shewed a disposition to tamper with the feelings of
the slaves respecting these holidays. The holidays at Easter were
wholly omitted. The Council amended the Bill by restoring the word
Easter or Good Friday, thinking probably that it had been an inad-
vertent omission. But the Assembly rejected the proposed amend-
ment, and Easter remained excluded. (See Papers by Command, of
1830, No. 676, p. 34.)

We now come to the existing and allowed Act of 1831, in which
the clause on this subject assumes a somewhat new shape. It is as
follows : —

§. 23, " And be it further enacted, that for the future all slaves in

100 Law and Usage of Christmas Holidays.

this island shall be allowed the holidays of Christmas and Easter.
Provided that at every such respective season no more than three holi-
days shall be allowed to follow or succeed immediately one after the
other, any law, custom, or usage to the contrary, notwithstanding."

Now here, not only are the words usual number of, and the words-
that are alloiced at the usual seasons, which stood in the Act of 1826,
carefully expunged, but Whitsuntide is excluded from the list of
holiday seasons, and the three usual holiday seasons are therefore
reduced to two.

It is difficult not to believe that these changes were intended either
as a kind of retaliation for the painful necessity imposed upon them of
excluding the persecuting clauses, or as a trap for the unwary slaves.
The Act itself, of 1831, did not come into operation till after
Whitsuntide, 1831, not indeed till the 1st of November, 1831, other-
wise the change might probably then have caused murmuring and
discontent among the slaves. Christmas 1831, therefore, was the
first occasion on which the attention of the slaves could have been
particularly called to this new version of the law respecting holidays.

The remarkable change in its structure had already called forth
the pointed animadversions of Lord Goderich, who seemed almost to
foresee the possible inconvenience that might arise from it. His
Lordship's words are these : —

" The. former statute declared, that ' for the future all slaves in the
island should be allowed the usual number of holidays that were al-
lowed at the usual seasons of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide.'
It is now enacted that they shall be allowed the holidays of Christ-
mas and Easter. Thus the three annual holidays are reduced to two^
and the slave is deprived of the security formerly given to him, that
he should enjoy * the usual number' of such days."

This despatch of Lord Goderich was submitted to the Assembly
on its meeting in October last, with a request that they would adopt
this, and the other suggestions contained in it ; but the Assembly re-
fused even to enter at all into the consideration of this despatch. It
was unceremoniously ordered to lie on the table, and no further notice
has been taken of it.

The reader will excuse the length and minuteness of these details
on the subject of Christmas, as it will be found to be intimately con-
nected with the whole of the melancholy events which have taken
place in two or three parishes, and which have produced the oppor-
tune occurrence of another servile insurrection, at the very moment
when it was most likely, once more, to be of use in averting parlia-
mentary interference.

It does not appear from Lord Belmore's despatches, or from any
account which has been received in this country, that any disturb-
ance whatever had occurred in eighteen of the twenty-one parishes
which Jamaica contains ; neither is it stated, in any account which we
have seen, that any attempt was made by the masters, in any of those
parishes to abridge the usual number of holidays, which the whole
slave population of Jamaica had always enjoyed at Christmas, and
which Mr. Alexander Barclay assures us was three and sometimes

Attempt to Abridge the Holidays of the Slaves. 101

four days; a statement which seems fully borne out both by the terms
of the Act of 1826, and by the insidious alterations introduced into
that of 1831. Certainly, at Kingston and its neighbourhood, no
doubt whatever appeared to be entertained of the right which the
slaves had to the three days following Christmas, namely the
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the 26th, 27th, and 28th of De-
cember, 1831. The Sunday on which Christmas day happened to
fall was no holiday, nor was it ever considered as such in Jamaica,
any more than in the public offices in this country where holidays
used to be observed. Accordingly, we have now before us a letter
from Kingston, dated the 5th of January, which distinctly affirms the
fact that not only the 26th and 27th, but also the 28th had been ob-
served as holidays in that city, and the surrounding districts. Not
the slightest symptoms of disturbance occurred in that quarter.
Moreover in a Kingston newspaper, which bears date the 31st of De-
cember, and is now before us, we find the following decisive passage.

" We have endeavoured to ascertain the causes which led to the
disturbances in St. James, and find that an attempt to deprive the
negroes of two of their holidays, is the principal, if not the only one.
Christmas day was Sunday. This latter is unquestionably the pro-
perty of the slave. They were therefore entitled to Monday, Tues-
day and Wednesday, and it was an attempt to deprive them of the
two last named, that led to the disagreeable results which all must
lament. This view of the subject is borne out by the circumstances
of Colonel Lawson's letter being dated the 28th, (Wednesday,) a
circumstance, in itself, sufficient to justify the conclusion, that at-
tempts had been made on the previous day (Tuesday) to compel the
negroes to work. If our view be correct, it is easy to perceive on
whom the blame ought to rest."

Now without pleading for the correctness of this Editor's view of
the subject, and even admitting that Colonel Lawson's letter, though
written on the Wednesday may refer to that day, and not to Tuesday,
which we think the most probable construction, enough remains to
substantiate the fact, that an attempt was made in St. James to de-
prive the slaves of one of their usual holidays, and that this attempt
was the cause of the unhappy events which followed.

But this is not all. We have in the Extraordinary Gazette, a letter
from Mr. Macdonald the Chief Magistrate of Trelawney, to the
Governor, dated Dec. 28, 1831, (Wednesday) in which he states that
he believed that " nine-tenths of the whole slave population, have
this morning refused to turn out to work ;" and this refusal to turn
out to work he regards as "an actual state of rebellion." The
refusal therefore to turn out to work on the master's plantation, on a
day which the negroes hitherto had considered their own, both by
law and by immemorial usage, is here assumed, by the chief magis-
trate, to be " actual rebellion," and to justify him in treating the
recusants as rebels in arms.

This would be deemed strange doctrine in this country, if the
Master of Eton College were so insane as to order his scholars to ply
their school tasks, on the day usually dedicated to the montem, and,

102 Measures of Repression resorted to.

on their refusal to obey his mandate, to call for a military force to
punish their rebellion.

Utterly absurd as such conduct must appear to us, it was pre-
cisely the conduct which Mr. Gustos Macdonald, had he not been
happily confined to his bed by a fever at the time, says he would
have pursued with respect to the 700 slaves belonging to Orange
Valley estate. He learnt that these 700 slaves had, that morning,
(the 28th, Wednesday,) refused to employ their own day of revelry
in plantation work ; and he tells Lord Belmore, that had it been in
his power, he would forthwith have assembled the militia and attacked
them. How he would have proceeded in conducting that attack, is
plain from the orders he afterwards gave to Colonel Cadien, with re-
spect to these very slaves, as related in his letter to Lord Belmore of
the 4th of January. — " My advice to Colonel Cadien was to take as
few priso7iers as jwssible," — in other words, to slaughter all he could
in cold blood. And yet all that we can discover the Orange Valley
slaves to have done, was, to cease from Vv'ork on their own Wednesday,
and when the military were sent to punish this rebellion, to retreat from
the coming storm into the woods, quitting their houses, and carrying
with them their oivn valuables. Their depot, it is true, was disco-
vered and burnt ; but it is not said that the slightest injury was done
by these slaves to their master's property. Orange Valley is no where
mentioned as having had even a trash house burnt. Nay, it appears
from Mr. Custos Macdonald's letter, in which he had just before
communicated his cruel order to give as little quarter as possible,
that the slaves, at least many of them, were at the very moment of
his writing quietly " turned out to work" on the plantation.

The only damage done on Orange Valley estate, therefore, as far as
the Gazette affords us any information, Vv^as done to the property,
not of the master, but of the terrified slaves, who had fled to avoid
the n:ierciless fate to which the Custos tells us he had foredoomed them,
namely, to the bullet or the bayonet, with as little quarter as possible.

That we do him no wrong in this judgment is clear, from what he
says in the same letter about the " refractory Negroes," the rebels in
short, belonging to Kent estate; an estate, which, like Orange Val-
ley, is not stated to have sustained any damage whatever. The slaves
of Kent had, it seems, taken " every thing from their houses, even
their children,'' and, as we suppose, had fled into the woods to escape
the tender mercies of Mr. Custos Macdonald's detachment ; " but,"
he adds, with the energy to which he lays peculiar claim, ^' strong
measures are to be immediately pursued against them." We await
the result with no small degree of solicitude.

And yet what was the crime, (even upon the shewing of the Custos
himself, so far as he has chosen in this letter to throw any light upon
it,) which had thus provoked his vindictive fury. They had taken a
day, which had always been their own, for their accustomed revelry,
and had refused to employ it in plantation labour; and when about to
be attacked by an armed force, they had fled to the woods for shel-
ter, and had carried their valuables and their childre?i with them !

Before we quit this subject of tRe wanton violation of the customary

Circumstances and Progress of the Disturbance. 103

holidays at Christmas, we will briefly advert to the only document in
the whole Gazette which bears any mark of authenticity, though not
only that, but every other document which has been given to the
public in the Extraordinary Gazette of Feb. 22, seems to be made
up in great part of mere suspicion, or of vague conjecture, or of idle
rumour, or of terror and alarm. We allude to the affidavit of a man
of the name of Annand, the overseer of a small property, called
Ginger Hall, belonging to a Mr. George Longmore, which we can
hardly believe to be a sugar estate, having only a hundred Negroes
upon it, who distinctly states, that he had given orders to the slaves
to turn out to work on Wednesday, the 28th of December ; from
which order, according to his own account, evidently resulted the dis-
order that followed ; for till that moment, he admits, that he had seen
nothing in their conduct to lead him to suspect any thing of the kind :
he was, therefore, he says, " much surprised at their insubordination."

We have now established the fact, that in the parishes where any
serious insubordination occurred, it seems to have been directly ex-
cited by the attempt of at least some planters to deprive the slaves of
a day to which they conceived themselves to have an undoubted
right, and in which opinion they seem fully borne out by immemorial
usage ; by the laws which had preceded that which had come into
operation, for the first time, only a few weeks before; by Mr. Alexan-
der Barclay's clear and decided testimony ; and by the course
pursued throughout the Island, except in St. James and one or two
adjoining parishes; in which alone disturbances seem to have occurred.
That in such circumstances some disturbance should have taken place
can hardly be matter of surprise to any one, especially when it is re-
collected that Christmas is a time of revelry, and that, among other
things, an allowance of Rum, Mr. Barclay tells us, is then distributed
to the slaves; under the added excitement of which many of them may
have been found, when the premature and unwelcome summons
reached them to resume the hoe on pain of the cart-whip.

Having established this point, and also that the refusal, under these
circumstances, to tur]i out to work was regarded as an act of rebellion
to be visited with svunmary and unsparing military execution, we must
forbear from prosecuting farther at present the history of these melan-
choly transactions. That -during the subsequent stages of the dis-
turbance many violent acts may have been committed by the slaves
v/e cannot pretend to deny ; but the details which follow the 28th
are so vague and uncertain, either as to the nature or the eiTects of
that violence, that we dare not venture, without further authentic in-
formation, to speak with any precision on the subject. We must,
therefore, satisfy ourselves for the present with having traced the dis-
turbance home to its real source. Which of the conflicting parties,
when the melee, had once commenced by calling in the military, have
shared most largely in the subsequent outrages, and in the guilt at-
tendant on those outrages ; we shall probably be better able to appre-
ate before we publish another number of our work.

But while we decline to pursue the history of these painful occur-
rances beyond the point at which we have arrived, the 28th of Dec,

104 Circumstances and Progress of the Disturbance.

(the abstracted Christmas holiday) there are several circumstances
-which appear on the face of Lord JBelmore's despatch, and its volumi-
nous accompaniments, which merit a brief notice.

1 . It is no where stated that a single life had been taken by those
called insurgents, while it is stated that Negro blood had flowed freely
and copiously. On this point, however, we shall probably soon have
fuller and more precise information. Sir Willoughby Cotton, it is
true, says of " these infamous wretches," that " their cruelty in various
instances has been excessive,'' but he stands alone in this assertion,
and neither he nor any one of Lord Belmore's numerous correspondents
has specified one instance of the kind, or given the name of a single
victim of their personal violence. All this, however, Sir Willoughby
will doubtless explain hereafter, although there is one passage in his
latest despatch, January 5, which manifests a precipitation and im-
maturity of judgment that do not promise well for the interests of
fairness and candour. He had then been only four days in St.
James, to which he appears to have been before a perfect stranger,
and during these he had been busily employed in the work of pursuing
and slaying, in apprehending, trying, and executing Negroes, men
and women. And yet he ventures, with only four days experience, thus
to write to Lord Belmore : — " The fact is, the Negroes in this district
have behaved infamously , nor is there the slightest palliation for their
conduct. I have most minutely inquired into the treament, generally
and particularly, and can aver it has been most kind." Now, on
whose authority is it that this British officer ventures to make this
solemn averment in a public despatch, while he fills a situation in
which he should have stood as an impartial judge between the parties?
What can Sir W. Cotton have known, in these four days, of the slavery
that had existed in St. James, but from the information, possibly, of
guilty, but most certainly of interested individuals? But we will not
pursue this subject. We await Sir Willoughby's farther details, only
remarking that he does not allude once, in any one of his letters, to
the abstraction of the Christmas holiday.

2. Much has been said of the very large and extensive destruction
of property which has taken place ; but as this was subsequent to
the occurrences of the 28th of December, the day on which we have
proved that some Negroes of the disturbed parishes were deprived of
the holiday which justly belonged to them, and were deemed and
treated as rebels for daring to assert their right to it ; all is so vague
and uncertain and even so contradictory, that we prefer waiting for
farther advices before we enter upon its history. The whole number
of properties of which any mention is made, in the whole of the des-
patch, is sixty-four ; but it does not appear that more than fifty-three
of these sustained any injury at all. Of those injured, about forty-five
appear to have been sugar estates ; but the extent of injury is not
specified. On some it is limited to the trash-house, a shed covered
with shingles, and standing apart from any other building, where the
dried stalks of the cane, reserved from the preceding year's crop, for
fuel with which to commence the next year's boiling, is deposited. In
only two or three cases is the burning of the works specifically men-

Circumstances and Progress of the Insurrection. 105

tioned, though the probability is, that majiy may have been destroyed.
But what is more extraordinary is, that no allusion to the firing of cane
pieces, on any one of the estates, is made in any one of the communica-
tions; except that Sir Willoughby Cotton states it to have been, as
he understood, the intention of the slaves not to fire the canes; and
something to the same effect is said by Mr. Annand, in the single
affidavit transmitted to this country. Under these uncertainties it
would be vain to attempt any elucidation of the subject. One thing,
indeed, appears certain, that the houses of the absent Negroes were
set fire to, both by the King's troops and by the militia, an act
of wanton barbarity, and of serious loss, both to masters and slaves,
for which it is difficult to account. This example at least of useless
vengeance ought to have been prevented, we think, by the British
commander-in-chief. He speaks of the slaves, it is true, as " infamous
wretches," who have acted " infamously " and whose conduct admits
not of " the slightest palliation." But there was no good to be done
by burning their houses. But what says Mr. Macdonald, the Gustos
of Trelawney, writing at' the very same time, and whose testimony
must be more worthy of attention than that of one who speaks from four
days' knowledge of the parish ? His testimony is this, " I am happy to
inform you, that every estate under my charge have continued faith-
fully at their work and completely protected their masters' property,
which is very gratifying to me. I do not wish to make any invidious
remarks ; but if other gentlemen had acted with the same kindness
and taken the same pains to explain the real nature of things, as I
have done, I do not think that this unfortunate insurrection would
have been so general, as in St. James in particular, their vengeance
seems pointed against certain individuals." Mr. Macdonald, we pre-
sume, had given his slaves their Christmas holidays !

This pointed testimony of the Custos, worth a thousand such testi-
monies as that of Sir Willoughby Cotton, led us to examine more
closely the statistics of all the disturbed estates mentioned in the
Gazette ; and we found, as Ave had expected, that on almost everyone
of them, there had been a regular and progressive decrease of the
slave population from 1821 downwards, of one and two per cent, per
annum, and in some still more. We reserve this list, with the par-
ticulars of the actual decrease on each estate, for another occasion.
But in the mean time the single fact of the general decrease, for
which we vouch, of itself speaks volumes ; and may stand in contra-
diction to Sir Willoughby Cotton's hasty conclusions, respecting
slavery in St. James's. If his judicial sentences should prove equally
hasty it will be but the more unfortunate, as respects the possibly
guiltless, though " infamous wretches," men and women, whom his
military j^a^ may condemn to die.

3. But for the seriousness of the catastrophe over which we are
called to mourn, and the numbers who have been slaughtered, and
whom even Sir Willoughby Cotton says, he finds to hemore consider-
able than he had imagined, no one could help being amused by the
alteration in the tone and bearing of the same men in the months of
July, and of December, 1831. In July all was bluster as we have

p

106 Altered Tone of the White Inhabitants.

seen, and menace and airosfant defiance. The heroes of St. James
and Trelawney then gallantly led their wordy war, not against a few
miserable, naked, and unarmed slaves (though servile insurrection
flourished as a touching figure of speech throughout many a vehement
and inflammatory harangue) ; but against the might and majesty of
Great Britain. " We will rebel," said the planters ; " we will resist
even unto blood," the vile attempts of the King's ministers, to pro-
tect our slaves from the driver's lash. " We will renounce the King's
allegiance" if he shall dare to prevent our negresses from having their
flesh torn from their exposed limbs by the cart-whip. In all this they
were, it is true, but practising on the fears and the credulity of the
British public, while they wholly ovei'looked, in the blindness of their
rage against Lord Goderich and Lord Howick, and the saints, all the
nearer fires that were ready to burst beneath their feet, and which
the very breath they were thus wasting was likely to kindle to a flame.
War, war to the knife, with Great Britain, and with the troops of
Great Britain, was then their mad cry, wholly unmindful of their own
feeble means of resistance, and thinking only of the effect they might
be able to produce on the apprehensions and the ignorance of
British statesmen.

But contemplate them in the December following. Even Colonel
Grignon, who so doughtilyled thevan in this war of bluster and menace^
seems now alarmed almost at his own shadow. He and his brother
magistrates, then so vaunting and so confident in their own prowess,
now condescend to sue even for a single company of the King's troops
to shield them from destruction. Let there be but even one " com-
pany of the regulars :" it will " do away with the notion the slaves
entertain, that the King's troops will not act against them." Let
but the muzzles of the guns of one of the King's ships, even of the
smallest class, be seen on our side at Falmouth or Montego bay, and
we shall feel safe; our militia, they say, is "weak," our arms " gene-
rally very inefficient ;" the balls and cartridges do not suit the
bores of the rifles ; the cartridge paper is unserviceable ; the men are
without clothes ; — only send us a few red coats, and let them appear
willing to act for us, we shall then feel ourselves to be secure, but not
otherwise. And yet these are the very men who, in loud and
menacing tones had shortly before bid a bold defiance to the power of
an Act of Parliament, backed by the military force of England^
Where would have been their boasting, what would have been their
means of a single hour's resistance had that Act gone out ; and had
Sir Willoughby Cotton been charged to support the Governor in
carrying it into full effect. Resistance, forsooth, in such a case ! It
is utterly ludicrous ! To speak of such a thing is the merest insanity !

4. But we must glance for one moment at the reviled and maligned
missionaries. The despatches treat them, on the whole, with more
moderation than we had ventured to hope. A Mr. Box,^ whom Mr.
Gustos Macdonald, forgetting his office of justice of the peace, has
chosen to condemn, previous not only to trial but even to accusation,
as *' one of the incendiary preachers," implying that there were many
such, had only escaped the arrest designed for him by the Gustos, by

The Missionaries suspected of Inciting the Disturbance. 107

having gone to attend a Missionary meeting at Kingston, in ignorance
of any such design. He was, however, taken into custody there by
the Governor's orders, without any other ground than the above vague
imputation ; but the Governor had prudence enough to discover that
this ground was insufficient, and he, therefore, takes credit for his hu-
manity in not sending him back at once to Falmouth, and thus causing
some delay " in hurrying him to trial" at a moment of so great ex-
citement.

But let it not be supposed from this apparent moderation that such
was the tone and temper either of the press or of the white population
of Jamaica.

The Cornwall Courier, of the 4th of January last, published at
Falmouth, in Trelawney, scruples not to affirm "that the acts of re-
bellion and incendiarism in Trelawney and St. James are occasioned"
(not by the open resistance of the masters to the benevolent designs of
the British Government, but) "by the slaves having been deceived and
misguided by the Sectarians" (not by the angry invectives of Mr. Grig-
non, or the harsh deeds of such declaimers as Mr. Frater ; but) by Bap-
tist and Methodist missionaries " preaching rebellion to the slaves,
and instilling it into their minds in the place of religion." " Doubt
no longer exists," it is added, "as to the instigators of the rebellion."
"Three Baptist missionaries, William Knibb, William Whitehouse, and
Thomas Abbott, have just been forwarded, under an escort, to the
head quarters at Montego Bay, where a military tribunal is sitting,
and where five rebels were tried and shot yesterday." " Immediate
steps should be taken to place the whole of the Sectarian preachers
in the island, if not in close custody, at least under a most rigid sur-
veillance : this is not a time for half measures ! " — And to the Courier
of Falmouth responds in still fiercer tone the Courant of Kingston.
" The Sectarian preachers have now the pleasing satisfaction of
knowing that they have succeeded in rendering the fairest fields in
Jamaica barren wastes, and have sent forth many of our most respect-
able families houseless and without the means of existence. These
indeed must be gratifying reflections to men who jjretend to preach
and teach the mild and henign doctrine of our Saviour to our slaves,
but Avhose souls are bent on the destruction of the fairest portion of
the British empire ; and that merely" (we use the Editor's italics
throughout) " because they are paid by the Anti-Slavery Society to
hasten our ruin. They have progressed one step too fast, and we may
perhaps be able to make their infamous conduct recoil upon them-
selves. Three Baptist preachers are now in custody ; and as we are
satisfied they would not have been taken into custody on slight
grounds by Sir Willoughby Cotton, we hope he will award them fair
and impartial justice. Shooting is however too honourable a death
for men whose conduct has occasioned so much bloodshed and the
loss of so much property. There are fine hanging woods in St. James
and Trelawney, and we do sincerely hope that the bodies of all the
Methodist preachers who may be convicted of sedition may diversify
the scene. After this, our hostility even to men so reckless of blood,
carnage, and slaughter shall cease." — This is mere raving in men who

108 Feelings of Exasperation acjainst Missionaries.

for the previous six months, had been filling their pages with direct
provocations to insurrection on the part of the slaves, and is only
what was to be expected from them. But when we see newspapers
in this country joining in this senseless whoop, and affecting to believe
that the missionaries have been in fault on this occasion, and con-
demning them unheard, we do indeed wonder ; and we could have
wished that that regard to mere justice, which their Editors affect to feel
so sensitively on some occasions, had on this operated to arrest the pen.
But the missionaries do not need our defence. Their own friends are
fully equal to the task, and to them for the present, at least we leave
it. But we must at the same time beg to suggest to all who adopt
such senseless and unfounded calumny as their own, that they should
inquire before they add to it the sanction of their authority. — Can
they tell how far the lessons of the very men whom they are so prompt,
on no tangible evidence to stigmatize, may have been the means, —
though, through the hostility of the masters, they may not have pro-
duced all the effect that could be wished on the minds of the slaves, —
may have been the means by which the effects of the frantic clamours
of the planters against the benevolent purposes of the Government
may have been neutralized ; may have been the cause why we hear
of no blood having been shed by the slaves ; why Samuel Sharp
should have told Mr. Annand that he wished "to take no life;"
and why, moreover, they should have resolved, as both Mr. Annand,
and Sir Willoughby Cotton himself states to have been their declared
purpose, not to set fire to the cane-pieces ?

5. But we must turn to another topic. Lord Belmore says that
" Sir Willoughby Cotton expresses his astonishment that I had not
been made acquainted with the determination of the negroes not to
work after New Year's Day without being made free." " This," says
the General, " is most astonishing, as it would appear to have been
known on almost all the estates that these were the serdiments of the
negroes.''' How could Sir Willoughby have been so very weak and.
credulous as to have believed this afterthought of the gentlemen of
St. James and Trelawney ? Or how could Lord Belmore have given to
it the slightest heed, as if it were founded on fact, in the face of all he
himself has stated on the subject? When every idle rumour, every piece
of parish gossip, seems to have been instantly conveyed to him by the
worshipful custodes and magistrates of these two parishes, is it to be
imagined that the communication of this fact, alone so much more
important than all the rest, should have been withheld from him, if it
had, as Sir Willoughby rashly asserts, been a matter notorious on all
the estates ? Some one, doubtless, told him so, and he believed the
fact. But what does Lord Belmore himself tell us in complete explo-
sion of its authority ? He had addressed, some months since, letters
of inquiry (circulars we presume) to the custodes of parishes, "from
7ione of whom," he says, " did I receive unsatisfactory accounts, nor
did any complaint reach me of insubordination amongst the slaves, or
of any disposition to insurrection, although the members of Assembly,
from all parts of the island, had only separated, on adjournment, on
the eve of the insurrection." The adjournment was on the 16th of

Issue of Royal Proclamatid7i and its effects. 109

December. One of the Christinas holidays had not yet been insanely
attempted to be taken from the slaves by any of the planters.

This, indeed, is by far the most inexplicable part of the whole
affair. On the 16th of December, and for six days after, all was
tranquil. Not a whisper had been breathed from any quarter of the
slightest insubordination ; and yet, on the 24th of December, Lord
Belmore deems it right, by the advice, without doubt, of his official ad-
viser, Mr. William Bullock, to issue with great solemnity, a proclama-
tion of the King himself, which had been sent to him six months
before, by Lord Goderich, to be issued only in a case of great emer-
gency. This proclamation he takes this very occasion of peculiar
quiet to issue ; and it naturally produced throughout the island that
alarm, and distrust, and suspicion, between master and slave, which
he had just been assured on the best evidence were at rest.

" BY THE KING.— A PROCLAMATION.

"WILLIAM R.

Whereas it has been represented to Us, that the SLA VES in some
ofOur WEST-INDIA Colonies, and of Our Possessions on the
Continent of SOUTH AMERICA, have been erroneously led to
believe, that Orders have been sent out by Us for their emancipation :
And whereas such Belief has produced Acts of Insubordination,
which have excited our highest displeasure : We have thought fit,
by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, to issue this Our Royal
Proclamation : And We do hereby declare and make known. That
the Slave Population in our said Colonies and Possessions will forfeit
all claim on our Protection if they shall fail to render entire submis-
sion to the Laws, as well as dutiful obedience to their Masters : And
We hereby charge and command all our Governors of Our said
West-India Colonies and Possessions, to give the fullest publicity to
this Our Proclamation, and to enforce, by all the legal Means in their
power, the Punishment of those who may disturb the Tranquillity
and Peace of Our said Colonies and Possessions.

Given at our Court at Saint James, this Third Day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and in the Se-
cond Year of Our Reign.

GOD SAVE THE KING."

Can any one wonder that such a proclamation as this, at such a
time, actually asserting the existence of acts of insubordination, with-
out specification of time or place ; acts too of such a very formidable
nature, as to excite his " Majesty's highest displeasure," must have
astounded, and did astound, both white and black. Where, it was
anxiously inquired, is this dreadful rebellion raging, which has called
forth so alarming an annunciation from the King himself, on the very
eve of Christmas, disturbing the devotions of the sanctuary on that
day, and poisoning the festive enjoyments which are to follow ? No
one could answer the question to his own, or his neighbour's satisfac-
tion. All was doubt and trepidation ; and the mind of the public
was prepared for some direful events.

Lord Belmore seems to be aware, that he is bound to give some
good reason for this rash, unadvised, and most perilous publica-

110 Grounds for issuing the Royal Proclamation.

tion. He accordingly takes great pains to elaborate a reason for
it, and the ingenuity of Mr. Bullock seems taxed to the utmost, to
supply one, and yet to what a miserably lame and impotent conclu-
sion does the whole lead ?

The despatch sets out with preoccupying the mind, by a certain
sort of portentous obscurity, which may serve to conceal the absolute
littleness and insignificance, we may say nothingness, of the informa-
tion which had led him thus to drag forward the sacred name of his
Sovereign, to support assertions essentially untrue, and to tamper, by
the force of His authority, with the peace and happiness of the people
committed to his care. For what was the only information which
had reached him, prior to his putting forth this apparently uncalled
for publication ? " On the 22nd of December, it was," he says,
" that I received any accounts to excite alarm," and this was a letter
from a Colonel Lawson, a person who does not seem very deserving
of confidence, if we may judge from other parts of this very despatch ;
and we hesitate not to say, that no judicious man would have or-
dered a dog to be whipped, much less a whole community to be
frightened out of their wits, and out of their peace, by the idle
statements of this Colonel. Lord Belmore, we know not why, has
withheld the original letter thus received on the 22nd, on which the
whole affair turns ; but loads his confused detail with a mass of par-
ticulars which has no apparent connection with it ; and bearing a
date subsequent to the issue of the proclamation, it could not,
therefore, have influenced that proclamation. But the letter re-
ceived on the 22nd, and which can alone form the justification of this
proceeding, is not given. We have only Mr. Bullock's interpreta-
tion, and that interpretation so clouded and obscured, by jumbling
together events which we find, from the subsequent correspondence,
to have been all transmitted to the Governor, from St. James and
Trelawney, not earlier than the 25th of December, the day after the
proclamation, and which therefore could not by any possibility have
reached him till the 26th or 27th. But the matter is so important
that we shall transcribe the whole of this part of Lord Belmoi'e's
despatch of the 6th January, 1832.

" It was not until Thursday, the 22d ult., that I received any ac-
counts to excite alarm. The apprehensions which appeared to disturb
the public* iXLind during the summer had nearly subsided. The
planters complained of poverty and distress — the delegates sent forth
an ambiguous declaration, deprecating (as they expressed themselves)
' the insidious attempts to undermine and render valueless what little
remains of their property ;' but the brink of danger on which they
stood formed no part of their deliberations.

" On the 22d of December, I received a despatch from Colonel
Lawson, a magistrate, and commanding the Saint James's regiment of
militia, dated the 20th, stating that, on the Friday preceding, he
met the overseer of Salt Spring estate, who informed him, that on the

* There is a convenient ambiguity in this expression. Lord Belmore doubt-
less meant the ivhite mind, for that alone was disturbed in the summer. But
Mr. Bullock has managed to leave the point in doubt.

Official Despatch of Lord Belmore. Ill

previous day the negroes had behaved with great insolence to Mr.
Grignon, the attorney or chief manager of the estate ;* that two con-
stables, who had been sent to convey the ringleaders to Montego Bay,
had been assaulted and deprived of pistols, with which they were
armed, as well as their mules, and that the negroes had expressed their
determination not to work after New Year's-day. Mr. Grignon having
repaired to Montego Bay, a special session of magistrates was assembled,
when he and other persons employed on the estate gave information
of the circumstances which had occurred, and of the riotous and dis-
orderly state of the slaves ; in consequence of which, an order was
issued by the magistrates to Major Coates, as the nearest field officer
of militia, to send a detachment of the Saint James's regiment to Salt
Spring estate, for the purpose of restoring order. Major Coates im-
mediately communicated the directions he had received to Colonel
Lawson, commanding the Saint James's regiment, and who, anxious
to avoid the necessity of having recourse to the militia, and being for
many years well known to the negroes of the estate, delayed the de-
tachment from marching, and accompanied by Mr. Tharp, a neigh-
bouring proprietor, proceeded to the estate, in the hope, by his in-
fluence, to prevail on the negroes to return to their duty. He found
the negroes assembled in groups about the buildings on the estate,
and was informed that the senior book-keeper had suffered ill-treat-
ment, and that his life had been threatened. He endeavoured to expos-
tulate with the negroes, telling them he came as their friend, and
asked them to listen to him ; they would not, however, suffer him to
approach them, and walked off; and finding all his endeavours to
restore order ineffectual, he left them. Soon after, a party of fifty
men of the militia arrived, when almost every negro on the estate dis-
appeared. The next day they began to return, and when Colonel
Lawson wrote his despatch, the principal offenders only, amounting to
six persons, were absent. This conduct of the negroes on Salt Spring
estate, and information which the magistrates had received, that the
negroes on other estates would not return to work after New- Year's-
day, f induced the magistrates assembled at Montego Bay to forward
a requisition to Major Pennefather, commanding the 22nd regiment
at Falmouth, to order a detachment to march to that town, which
Major Pennefather immediately complied with. On the following
day I received an application from certain magistrates and inhabitants
of the parish of Portland, desiring that a vessel of war might be
ordered to Port Antonio, on account of some unpleasant rumours
which had reached them of discontent amongst the slaves in that
quarter."

Now here we have the whole of the information on which the

* Mr. Grignon seems every where. He began the clamour among the Whites
in July. We find him nowat the bottom of the Black movement. Salt Spring estate
is under his care ; it belongs to Mr. DefFell, of London, and had upon it in 1826,
177 slaves, being a decrease of fifty-six from 1821, when there was upon it 233.
This is a decrease of about 5 per cent, per annum !

t No man has ever lived in Jamaica without hearing precisely the same idle
rumours, propagated by silly and timid people, on the return of every Christmas,
for the last forty years.

112 Conclusion.

Governor professes to have acted on this occasion. And yet, to
what does it amount? Colonel Lawson tells the governor of what
he had heard from an overseer, who said the negroes had behaved
insolently to Mr. Grignon. And can we not suppose a body of
negroes so treated, (see note last page) as to be diminishing in
number by eleven a-year over and above the births, to have complaints
to make, which Mr. Grignon, their attorney, might construe into inso-
lence ; and that, when in his displeasure he sent troops to punish this
insolence, they should disappear ? Nothing can be a stronger proof,
than that this affair amounted to nothing more than one of those plan-
tation brawls, which generally end with a few cart-whippings, than
this, that they almost all returned voluntarily to the estate, and were
upon it when Colonel Lawson wrote his letter, dated on the 20th,
which Lord Belmore received on the 22nd, But another most de-
cisive proof, that we are right in our estimate of this affair, is this,
that during the whole of the subsequent disturbances, the negroes of
Salt Spring estate appear to have remained perfectly tranquil. Neither
the estate nor the negroes are noticed in any way, after the date of
the letter which reached Lord Belmore on the 22nd December ; nor
does it appear that they took any part whatever in the tumult around
them, or that they have injured the property of Mr. Deffell to the
value of a single farthing. As for the letter from Portland, which is
also suppressed along with that of Colonel Lawson, and which taken
together constitute the whole motive for the issue of the King's pro-
clamation, it is really unworthy of notice. — The burning of the trash
houses on York was not known to Lord Belmore on the 24th, and
probably was an accident, and not design.

On such grounds, was this portentous paper published, exciting in-
describable alarm and anxiety through every corner of this extensive
island, and calling forth remonstrances in some of the public prints
on the inutility of the proceeding, and the gratuitous mischief it was
so well calculated to produce. Nothing more occurred till Christmas,
of which we have already treated largely.

Having brought this examination to a close, we call on the Govern-
ment and the Parliament and the public to open their eyes to these
statements — to think of the blood that has been causelessly shed, and
of the misery that has resulted in a variety of ways from this unhappy
event; and would urge upon them, again and again, the obligation it
imposes to put a speedy termination to that crime of slavery which
is the prolific source of these, and of multiplied evils besides. This
country will not and cannot go on to tolerate such abominations, and
to continue loaded with the guilt arising from them. Slavery must

CEASE

POSTSCRIPT.

We have this moment heard that all the other Colonies have united, in the
contumacious purpose of Jamaica, to resist the recommendations of Government,
respecting the provisions contained in the Order of Council of the 3d of Nov.,
1831. If this be so, we trust it may lead, forthwith, to the only rational remedy
for these bloody disorders; we mean one general Act of Parliament, extending
to all the Colonies, which shall be far more effective than any measure which
. has yet been contemplated.

London:— S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, Bartholomew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 95.] APRIL 28, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 4.

I. PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS :— DEBATE ON THE SUGAR
DUTIES.

II. RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM JAMAICA :— Persecution of the
Missionaries; Treatment of Henry Williams.

III. COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY ON WEST INDIA AFFAIRS IN THE
HOUSE OF LORDS.

IV. MR. BUXTON'S MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

V. THE ANTI-SLAVERY RECORD.

VI. GENERAL MEETING OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

I. — Debate on the Sugae Duties.

On the 23rd of March, a discussion of considerable interest took place in the
House of Commons, upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer moving the order
of the day for the House going into committee on the Sugar Duties Bill. On
this occasion, Ministers, in defending their colonial policy from the attacks of the
West India advocates, were led to give a statement of the measures pursued by
themselves and their predecessors in office, from the adoption of the Parliamen-
tary Resolutions of 1823 to the present period. The speech of Lord Howick
may be considered as a sort of ministerial exposition of the policy and proceed-
ings of His Majesty's Government in regard to the West India question gene-
rally ; and on that account, a more full and accurate report of it than is to be
found in the daily newspapers, appeared to us likely to be acceptable to our
readers, and at all events worthy of preservation in the Anti-Slavery Reporter.
Among the other speeches on this occasion, the reader's particular attention is
requested to that of Mr. Buxton, in reply to the fifty times refuted statements of
the West Indians, on the progress of colonial reform.

Lord Althorp, in opening the debate, said, that it might be convenient for
the House, if he made a few observations before they went into committee. He
had been pressed by gentlemen connected with the West India interests, to de-
clare specifically the nature of the measure of relief contemplated by Govern-
ment. When pressed in the House to make a similar disclosure, he had stated
that he did not think it advisable to do so at that time, or before he was able dis-
tinctly to propose the adoption of the measures contemplated. He had since
maturely considered this point, and he was but the more convinced that Minis-
ters would not be acting consistently with their duty if they now stated specifi-
cally what the measure of relief was to be. He was, however, prepared to repeat
what he had before stated, that it would be a relief proffered to such of the West
India colonies as shall have shewn themselves disposed to accede to the wishes
of the Government; and, indeed, it must be evident to all, that, by only moving
for the renewal of the sugar duties for the short period of six months, Ministers
were quite willing still to leave the door open to discussion. But, besides the
measure referred to, the House was of course perfectly aware, that in different
parts of the West India colonies severe recent calamities had taken place, in-
volving great destruction of property. He alluded to the hurricane in Barbadoes,
and the insurrection in .Tamaica, which calamities had necessarily greatly aggra-
vated the local suffering in those colonies. Looking at this distress. Ministers

Q

114 Debate on the Sugar Duties, — Mr. Burge.

liad felt that it would be perfectly consistent with that sympathy which the mo-
ther country ought to feel towards the colonies, to come forward with temporary
relief, without affixing to that aid any portion of those conditions which he had
alluded to in speaking of the other more permanent plan of relief. He was
aware of the difficulty connected with such a proposition ; but he trusted that
the extreme exigency of the case might form a sufficient justification for bringing
it forward. He had, therefore, to state to the House, that it was the purpose of
the Government to afford assistance to the sufferers under these two calamities
by way of loan. The House had already agreed to assist with a grant of money
the poorer class who liad suffered by the hurricane in the Leeward Islands ; but
there were a great number of sufferers that did not belong to that class, and by
whom security could be furnished for the amount of the assistance given by Go-
vernment, who would take care that the securities were good, and that their claim
should have the priority over others. These were the views and intentions of
His Majesty's Ministers, which he hoped would shew that they sympathized with
the colonists, who he trusted woidd in return display a kindly feeling to the mo-
ther country, and a tendency to effect measures the accomplishment of which the
Government and people of England had so much at heart.

Mr. Burge said it was necessary for the colonists to know the nature and ex-
tent of the general measure of relief alluded to by the noble lord, which was to
be considered as a purchase for the surrender of their rights. It must be well
known to His Majesty's Government that it was quite impossible for the colonies
to accept relief under the humiliating conditions attached to the offer. The pro-
ceedings adopted with regard to the West India islands had been as unexpected
as they were unjust. Ministers, instead of modifying their opinions expressed
when in opposition, by a sober practical standard, had hastened to put them into
operation, to the risk of the most important interests. They had been only six
months in office when the speech of the noble viscount, the under-secretary for the
colonies, with a royal proclamation, arrived in the islands to create a most perilous
excitement. Ministers had advanced all those principles and opinions which were
calculated to produce the greatest mischief in the present state of colonial society.
The hon. and learned gentleman proceeded to animadvert upon the Orders in
Council, and said that the advisers of them seemed to doubt the wisdom of their
own act, for they paused before they sent them to the Mauritius, although it was
a crown colony, and he believed they were not sent there even yet. Lord Gode-
rich, in a former period of his public services, had shewn himself deserving of
the public confidence, and he (Mr. Burge) could hardly credit the fact that the
circular despatch to which his lordship's name was affixed had in reality received
his sanction. That despatch cast one indiscriminate censure on colonial society;
and if he were called upon to exhibit proof of the total ignorance of Ministers as to
the state of the colonies, of their unfitness to legislate for them, to that despatch he
would refer. The Government had acted unfairly and precipitately towards the
West India islands; and it was his decided conviction that the dreadful state of
affairs in Jamaica had been produced by a delusion on the minds of the negroes
that further measures with regard to them were contemplated. The hon. and
learned gentleman reverted to events recorded in colonial history, in support of
the views he had adopted on this point. With respect to the measure of con-
ditional relief, he maintained that there never was an instance of such a propo-
sition being brought forward by the Government of any country. Here were
Ministers, knowing that distress existed, — knowing that they had the means
of relieving this distress, — and yet they add, that this relief will be withheld, unless
the colonists obeyed the legislation of Downing Street, — unless they fol-
lowed verbatim et literatim the Orders in Council. They were for proposing
a penalty for disobedience on persons, two-thirds of whom were not in a
situation to obey the Orders in Council. What, he asked, would be the feeling
among a great mass of the colonial population, when they found that, although
ships of war were sent out, and an additional military force, to repress insurrec-

Debate On the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick. 115

tion, Ministers still persevered in that plan which had made such a powerful im-
pression and created so much excitement when it was first announced. In Ja-
maica, for an extent of forty or fifty miles, the country was a perfect waste, and
the whole slave population was thrown out of employ. The loan which the
Government was going to advance to the planters of Jamaica would be of little
use, unless there was at the same time a policy adopted toward them which
would restore that confidence among them which was necessary to induce them
to set about replanting their lands. The same effects had not yet, indeed,
been produced in the other islands which the world had unfortunately witnessed
in Jamaica ; but similar discontent and disaffection were known to exist there,
for the negro population in those islands partook of the same delusion by which
the negro population of Jamaica had been misled. In some of the Colonies he
was informed that in consequence of this circular of the British Government the
slaves had refused to obey the orders of their masters. Instead of irritating these
colonies, a wise Government would endeavour to win their affections by a course
of judicious concession and conciliation. These colonies wished to continue united
with Great Britain,- — their natural affections as well as their interests led them to
desire British connexion. But were Government aware of the language in which,
the rulers of other countries were addressing these colonies ? Had they seen,
for instance, the language in which the United States spoke to them through the
North American Review ? To conciliate them was therefore no less a matter of
duty than of policy. If the Government continued to press upon them by harsh
fiscal resolutions, it might produce their ruin : but when their ruin was eflfected,
the merchants and manufacturers of England would find themselves deprived of
one of their principal markets, and one of their main sources of wealth. De-
prived of these colonies, England would be deprived of the main source of her
strength, and her empire woul'd be contracted within the narrowest compass. He
therefore could not agree to the House going into committee upon this occasion.
If the noble lord had stated the nature of his measure of relief for the West In-
dian planters, — if he had abstained from these proceedings at present, — if he had
granted a committee of inquiry, in which all the relations of the colonies, and
the state of society in them, could have been explained to the country, — if he
had attended to the suggestions which had been made to him by the West Indian
interest, suggestions which were founded on a just consideration, not only of what
was due to tiie slave, but also of what was due to the master, — if such a course had
been followed, he (Mr. Burge) should not have persisted in his opposition to this
motion, as such a course would have restored that security to property, and that
confidence to the planters, which did not exist at present, and without which the
West India islands could not be prosperous.

Lord Howick spoke as follows : — " It has not been without much pain
that I have listened to the speech of the bon. and learned gentleman who
has just sat down, convinced as I am that the satisfactory adjustment of the very
difficult and embarrassing question which he has brought before the House, is
daily becoming of more pressing importance, and that it cannot be deferred without
the risk of great calamities, while it is impossible it can be eflfected unless there
be a spirit of concession and forbearance, and a mutual good understanding be-
tween all the parties concerned. Feeling, I say, this conviction, I do most deeply
regret that an honourable and learned gendeman, who stands so high in the
confidence of the Legislative Assembly of the principal of our colonies, should
have so entirely misconceived the whole policy and views of the Government.
But severe as his censures on that policy have been, aggravated as are the charges
which he has brought against those who have been concerned in acting upon it,
I still feel the most perfect confidence, that when the House comes fairly to con-
sider what that policy really is, it will meet with its approbation.

" Sir, I would beg the House to consider what was the position in which this
question stood at the time when the present Government came into office. Every
member of this House must be aware, that by the Resolutions of 1823,

116 Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Hoivick.

Parliament was most distinctly pledged to make every effort to promote the
immediate mitigation, and to aim at the ultimate extinction of slavery. It must be
equally well known that, acting upon the policy which had been recommended
by Mr. Canning, and which had been sanctioned by all parties in this House, —
successive Governments had, since the year 1823, introduced into the Crown
colonies, which are under the legislative authority of His Majesty in Council —
regulations which had produced a very marked effect in mitigating the condition
of slavery, and which held out a prospect of its ultimate extinction. But as
the hon. and learned gentleman has abstained from discussing the particular
provisions of the different Orders in Council, I will follow his example; nor will
I inquire whether or not they were carried to the length which the more ardent
advocates of the abolition of slavery had a right to expect. Be this as it may, it
is, at least, certain that, as far as they went, these regulations were greatly to the
benefit of the slaves, and did not injure the masters ; and, unhappily, it is equally
certain that, notwithstanding the success of the experiment which had thus been
tried in the Crown colonies, the example which had been so strongly recom-
mended to the colonies having legislatures of their own, had not been followed;

" I will not at this moment attempt to contrast the laws passed for the pro-
tection of the slaves, by the different colonies having independent legislatures,
with the Order in Council which was passed for Trinidad in 1824, and which
was the model proposed for their imitation. On a former occasion I was obliged
to institute such a comparison, and I gladly avoid going over the same ground
again. I think the hon. and learned gentleman will not dispute the fact, that
no one of the colonies having legislative assemblies had earned the principles of
that Order in Council into full effect, and that in some hardly anything had been
done. What, then, was to be the conduct of the present Government when they
came into office ? Notwithstanding the example which had been set them by all
their predecessors, who had concurred in representing to the Assembly of Ja-
maica the necessity of adopting the views of Parliament, and the unsatisfactory
nature of the progress they had yet made, were the present Ministers to rest
satisfied with this progress, and leave slavery in Jamaica in the condition in
which they found it ? Sir, the respect due to the opinion of Parliament, as it
was declared by the Resolutions of 1823, made it their duty not to give up the
attempt to ameliorate the condition of the slaves ; and even if their sense of
justice and humanity could have allowed them to entertain such a thought as that
of abandoning this duty, the universal feeling amongst all ranks and all condi-
tions of society would have rendered such a course impossible. Things could
not, then, be allowed to remain where they were ; it was absolutely necessary
that the wishes of Parliament should not be suffered to remain unheeded by the
Colonial Legislatures.

" Mr. Canning, in moving the resolutions to which the Government had to
look as the rule of their conduct, had stated that the first course to be pursued
was that of trying upon the Assemblies the language of remonstrance and exhor-
tation ; but when the present Government came into office, this had already
been done. During the eight years which had elapsed from the date of the
Resolutions of 1823, a correspondence had been carried on of a nature, I regret
to say, far from satisfactory, in which successive Secretaries of State had en-
deavoured, with the utmost earnestness, to impress on the Legislatures of Jamai-
ca, and of the other colonies, the necessity of adopting the views of Parliament.
But the language of remonstrance and exhortation was tiow exhausted ; it was
impossible to add anything, either to the weight or urgency of the expostulations
which had already been made by the former Governments. This circumstance is
so important, that I must take the liberty of troubling the House with a statement
of the negotiations which had been carried on with the Assembly of Jamaica.
I do so with reluctance, for there is nothing which I am more anxious to avoid
than to say anything which can possibly give the slightest offence ; but after the
speech of the hon. and learned gentleman, it is absolutely necessary that I

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Hoivick. 117

should recal to the recollection of the House what had been the nature and the
result of these negotiations. On the 28th of May, 1823, shortly after the Reso-
lutions I have already more than once referred to had been adopted by the
House, a circular was sent out by Lord Bathurst, announcing the fact of their
having been so. This was succeeded by another on the 9th of July, in which
the strongest possible exhortations were addressed to the Assembly of Jamaica,
as well as to the Assemblies of other colonies. The conclusion of that despatch
is couched in the following terms : — ■

" ' In conclusion, I have most earnestly to impress upon you the necessity of pro-
ceeding to carry these improvements into effect, not only with all possible despatch,
but in the spirit of perfect and cordial co-operation with the efforts of his Majesty's
Government. More particularly you will be attentive to have the necessary laws
framed with such precaution and foresight as, if possible, to provide an effectual
security for the faithful observance of them . To this end you will consult with the
legal advisers of the Crown on the frame of the necessary bills, and you will, from
time to time, communicate with me upon the progress you make in this work, or
upon the difficulties which may obstruct its completion, and if (what I am unwill-
ing to imagine,) you should meet with serious opposition, you will lose no time in
transmitting to me the necessary communication, in order that I may take the ear-
liest opportunity of laying the matter before Parliament, and submitting for their
consideration such measures as it may be fit to adopt in consequence.'

" The manner in which this communication was received by the Assembly of
Jamaica, will be best shewn by the following extract from a Report made by a
Committee appointed to consider of the matter, — a Report which, I fear, still
stands unrescinded upon their journals. The Report is dated 11th of December,

1823, and runs thus : —

" ' That your Committee observe, with surprise and regret, that bis Majesty's
Ministers have, by the above resolutions, sanctioned the principles laid down by
our enemies in the mother-country, and pledged themselves to enforce such mea-
sures as shall tend, ultimately, to the final extinction of slavery in the British
colonies.'

" Sir, it is, I think, deeply to be regretted, that the Legislative Assembly of
Jamaica should have thus peremptorily refused to entertain even the notion of
the ultimate extinction of slavery." — [Mr. Hume here said, " Read the latter
part of the resolution of the Committee."] — " I have only an extract here ; but
I believe that it contains the whole of the passage in question." — [Mr. Burge
observed, " The Report contains something more, for in that very session im-
portant measures were passed."] — " Sir, I have said that I have here only an
extract from the Report ; but I leave it to the House to judge, whether any
thing which precedes or follows the words I have read, can alter their sense. As
to the measures which the hon. and learned gentleman says were adopted by the
Assembly in the same session, I will, in imitation of his example, avoid going
into any examination of their details. I am content to leave it to be decided by
the hon. and learned gentleman himself, whether these measures approach even
to those which were recommended to the Colonial Legislatures, and I will ven-
ture to assert, that he will be unable to shew that any thing has been done which
makes against the conclusion which I meant to draw from this extract, that a
spirit has, from the first, been displayed by the Assembly of Jamaica, which,
after nine years of fruitless exhortation and remonstrance, would have made a
continuance in that course more than childish.

" But, Sir, to resume the series of these negociations. On the 14th of July,

1824, and on the 31st of July, 1825, Lord Bathurst again wrote, to exhort the
colonies to adopt the views of the mother country ; and complained that the only
measure that had been proposed in furtherance of those views, had been one for
the admission of slave evidence, which had been lost, one person only voting for
it. On the 18th of May, 182G, Lord Bathurst again wrote a circular despatcTi
to the governors of the legislative colonies, and sent the drafts of eight separate
bills, which he desired to have submitted to the Assemblies for their concurrence;
a course which was treated (like that now adopted by the present Government)

118 Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick.

as an infringement of their privileges." — [Mr. Borge. " No!"] — "The learned
gentleman says, ' no ;' but he must be aware that these bills were struck out of
the orders of the day, by the legislatures of all but one or two of the smaller
colonies; the consideration even of the bills so proposed being rejected as a
breach of their privileges. On the 2nd of September, 1827, another despatch was
addressed to the Governor of Jamaica, by Mr. Huskisson, now become Secretary,
taking up the same views as Lord Bathurst, representing the unsatisfactory nature
of the progress made by the Assembly, and complaining of the spirit which had
been manifested. He disallowed, also, the Act which they had passed in De-
cember, 1826, on account of certain clauses it contained contrary to the principles
of toleration. In doing so, he further stated, in great detail, in how many re-
spects this Act would have been far from satisfactory, even had the objectionable
clauses been omitted. This fact it is of importance to remember, for the Act
which was passed last year, and which the honourable and learned gentleman
says ought to have induced the Government to abstain from the course which
has been pursued, was the very same law, only without those clauses which have
hitherto prevented its being allowed to come into operation, which Mr. Huskis-
son had, six years before, declared would, even with this omission, have been
altogether unsatisfactory. A long answer was drawn up by a Committee of the
House of Assembly, to this despatch from Mr. Huskisson. To this he again re-
plied, in a despatch dated the 22d of March, 1828. In that despatch, he ex-
pressed his anxious desire that the reformation might be carried into effect by the
Assembly itself, in whatever manner might be least inconvenient to the inhabitants
of the colony ; but conveying an explicit warning, that a continued refusal on the
part of the Assembly to act, would throw upon the Government and Parliament
the necessity of acting for it. Sir George Murray afterwards became Secretary
of State, and within a few months after his accession to oflfice, he wrote two cir-
cular despatches, one dated the 3rd, and the other the 15th of September, 1828,
in which he uses language not to be mistaken. In the last-mentioned despatch,
he states that ' there are few circumstances which would occasion more regret to
his Majesty's Government, than that the neglect of the colonists to exercise their
right of legislature, should at length produce the necessity of a legislative inter-
position from home. Such is the language of Sir George Murray, on the 15th
September, 1828, more than two years before the present Government came into
office. In April, 1830, upon the advice of that right honourable gentleman, the
same Act, which had been brought under the consideration of Mr. Huskisson in
1827, and had again been passed, was again disallowed. Sir George Murray
adopting all the sentiments of his predecessor.

" Such Sir, when the present Government came into office, had been the
course of the negotiations which had been carried on with Jamaica ; and I ask
whether it would have been satisfactory to the country, — whether it would not
been derogatory to the honour of the Crown, and of Parliament, again to tender
advice which had been so often, and so contemptuously rejected. But, Sir, there
was a still stronger reason against persevering in an attempt, evidently futile, to
obtain by mere remonstrance a compliance with the wishes of Parliament : such
a course would have been that which, of all others, would have been the most
injurious to the interests of the West Indian proprietors, and to which they
would, with most reason, have a right to object. The whole of this correspon-
dence had, from time to time, been laid before Parliament and the country, and
the remonstrances which had failed to produce the desired effect upon the As-
sembly of Jamaica had necessarily increased the general impatience of the public
in this country, for the accomplishment of an object to which they attached so much
importance. To have gone on, therefore, addressing exhortations and admoni-
tions to the Assembly, when there was no longer a hope that such language
would be attended to, would have been merely to increase the excitement and
irritability which existed upon this subject at home. I am willing Sir, to make
every allowance for the conduct of the Assembly of Jamaica, suffering as they

\

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howie k. 119

and their constituents were under the severe pressure of distress, and irritated by
the constant attacks of which they had been the object ; neither surprise nor any
other feeling but one of regret is excited in my mind by this conduct ; but I say
that it made it absolutely necessary (if for no other reason, with a view to the
interest of the planters themselves) to take measures for putting an end to the
controversy which was going on between the executive Government and the local
Legislature. Nor, Sir, is this my opinion only, for I am sure I have heard my
hon. friend, the member for Thetford, more than once declare that it was the
duty of the Government to take the matter into its own hands, to come forward,
with some specific plan, and propose some means for carrying it into execution.
Sir, I think that my hon. friend is right, and that it is greatly to be lamented that,
this course was not earlier adopted. It is only one among so many instances of
that miserable and temporizing policy, to which so many of our present difficul-
ties are to be attributed, which, never looking at dangers while still at a distance,
— never seeking to deal with great questions while they can be easily and satis-
factorily arranged, — merely attempts to get through, for the day and for the hour,
the ordinary routine of business, with no other object than that of not increasing
the pressure to which the Government is exposed, without considering the ulti-
mate consequence of such ill-advised and impolitic delay.

" Sir, this policy, which I think has been too long persevered in, could no
longer be maintained ; and the present Government were necessarily compelled
to choose between abandoning the object to which Parliament and the country
stood pledged, by submitting to the resistance of the assemblies, or taking mea-
sures by which that resistance might be overcome. I say that, if the Govern-
ment could not rest satisfied with the progress which had been made in the
amelioration of slavery, still less could it persist in mere idle remonstrances. It
was absolutely necessary that some final step should be taken ; and, agreeing
with Mr. Canning, that coercion ought to be had recourse to only in the last ex-
tremity, the Government was anxious to avoid making an appeal to the direct
legislative authority of the Imperial Parliament, and hoped that the obedience
of the Colonial Legislatures would be secured by measures which would at once
have the effect of manifesting the determination of this country not to recede
from her just demands, and afl'ord the main inducement to yield, — holding out as
the reward of compliance, the prospect of relief from that distress which the Go-
vernment acknowledged and deplored. Acting upon these views, when the hon.
member for Weymouth last year brought forward his motion, and it became ne-
cessary to explain to the House and to the country what was the policy intended
to be pursued on this subject, my noble friend moved, as an amendment, the Re-
solutions, the effect of which would have been to pledge the House to afford ad-
vantages, in the shape of a remission of duties to those colonies which should
consent to adopt the recommendations of Government ; at the same time that
an intimation was given, that an Order in Council would be drawn up, completing
that which had been passed the year before, and which Sir George Murray had
at the time expressly stated he had left imperfect, for want of further informa-
tion. The unconditional adoption of the contemplated Order in Council would,
it was announced, be the condition attached to the indulgence proposed to be
afforded.

" This course has been the subject of loud and vehement attack. It is said,
that the imposition of discriminating duties is only a mode of evading the pri-
vileges of the Colonial Legislatures. The learned gentleman who has just sat
down, not a little to my astonishment, asked whether any Government had ever
thought of adopting such a course, and stated that in not one of Mr. Canning's
speeches, was it intimated that it was desirable to do any thing, except through
the Colonial Legislatures themselves. No doubt Mr. Canning thought it desir-
able, as every man must, that the wished-for reformation should be the work of
the Colonial Legislatures themselves ; but I deny that he did not, in case of ne-
cessity, contemplate taking a different course. We have heard much of the effect

l20 Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick.

produced in the colonies, by the debates upon this subject, and I should have
thought that the speech of Mr. Canning, in moving the resolutions of 1823,
would have been eagerly read in Jamaica, but I am surprised to find that this
cannot have been the case. No accurate report of what passed on that occasion
can have reached the colony, or surely the hon. and learned member, who must
have been there at the time, would not have forgotten what Mr. Canning said, in
the splendid and masterly speech with which he introduced his amendment to
the motion of the hon. member for Weymouth. The right hon, gentleman
said : — ■

" ' We have a right to expect from the Colonial Legislatures, a full and fair co-
operation. And being as much averse by habit, as I am at this moment precluded by
duty, from mooting imaginary points, and looking to the solution of extreme, though
not impossible questions, I must add, that any resistance which might be manir
fested to the express and declared wishes of Parliament, — any resistance I mean,
which should partake not of reason, but of contumacy, would create a case (a case,
however, which I sincerely trust, will never occur) upon which his Majesty's Go-
vernment would not hesitate to come down to Parliament in council.'

*' Sir, I think it is sufficiently clear from this, that Mr. Canning contemplated
other measures, in case of resistance on the part of the Colonial Legislatures.
But on the 16th of March 1824, his language was still stronger : he says —

" ' There are three possible modes in which Parliament might deal with the peo-
ple of Jamaica ; — first, as I have said, it might crush them by the application of di-
rect force ; — secondly, it might harass them by fiscal regulations and enactments,
restraining their navigation ; — and, thirdly, it may pursue the slow and silent course
of temperate, but authoritative admonition. Now, Mr. Speaker, if I am asked what
course I would advise, I am for first trying that which I have last mentioned ; I
trust we shall never be driven to the second ; and with respect to the first, I will
only now say, that no feeling of wounded pride — no motive of questionable expedi-
ency— nothing short of real and demonstrable necessity, shall induce me to moot the
awful question of the transcendental power of Parliament over every dependency of
the British Crown.'

*' Such, Sir, was the language of Mr. Canning in 1824 ; in 1826 he proposed
that the Resolutions which had been agreed to three years previously by this House,
should be sent up to the Lords for their concurrence. I will read to the House
a part of the speech he made on that occasion. He said —

" ' He would not, however, deny but that from the spirit which the colonies had
already displayed on this subject, it was more than probable the time might arrive
when it would be necessary for that House to interfere more directly.

" ' He was desirous of giving to the Colonial Legislatures another chance of
bringing about, by their own agency, all that the British Parliament wished, with-
out the disturbance of the established system, or the agitation of the question, from
which, though he should not hesitate to enter into it when the occasion demanded,
considerable difficulties, which he wished, if possible, to avoid, would of necessity
ensue when it was once mooted. He would give them space and respite for a fur-
ther trial. He agreed with the hon. member for Westminster, that after the time of
that space and respite had expired, the period might come when it would be the
duty of the Parliament to take the matter out of the hands of the Colonial Legisla-
tures, and when it would be the duty of Government to come forward and ask Par-
liament for those additional powers it would be requisite to use for the accomplish-
ment of those objects which the Colonial Assemblies had refused to effect by their
own exertions.'

" Here then, we have a clear exposition of the views entertained upon this sub-
ject by Mr. Canning, and by the Government of which he was the organ. He
would have us first try exhortation, then fiscal regulation, and, lastly, direct le-
gislation ; and, so long ago as the year 1826, he considered that the first had
almost failed ; his forbearance was already nearly exhausted, and he was desirous
of giving to the colonies only ' space and respite for one further trial.' To warn
the local legislatures how nearly the season of indulgence had expired, — to con-
vey to them the clearest intimation of the determination of Parliament, he, in
this year, made a motion to send the Resolutions of 1823 up to the House of
Lords for their concurrence. Is it possible to deny, then, that the conduct of

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick. 121

the present Government has been the most lenient which, consistently with its
duties, it could adopt ? Exhortation having failed, the principle of the course
recommended by my noble friend in the Resolutions he moved last year, is dis-
tinctly pointed out by Mr. Canning, in his advice to harass the colonies by fiscal
regulations and enactments, restraining their navigation. The hon, and learned
gentleman cheers me ; he means, I presume, that I am wrong in saying that
there is an exact agreement between the course proposed by my noble friend, and
that which was recommended by Mr. Canning. Sir, the hon. and learned gen-
tleman is right ; there is a distinction between them, and it is this, — Mr. Can-
ning held out a threat to the disobedient ; my noble friend a promise of reward
to the obedient. My noble friend does not threaten to stop up the ports of the
contumacious colonies, to harass their trade, and compel them, by dire necessity,
to give way ; but he says, on the contrary, * We will not, in the first instance, at
least, adopt any measure to punish and coerce those which resist, but we will
promise to those which yield to our just and reasonable demand, such assistance
and relief as it is in our power to bestow.' I say, then, that the distinction in
point of leniency is not in favour of Mr. Canning's Administration, but in favour
of the Government of 1831. But, if I am not mistaken, something more was
implied by the cheer of the right hon. gentlenran opposite (Mr. Goulburn). He
meant to imply that Mr. Canning always proposed to come down to Parliament,
and that we have acted without that authority. But a moment's reflection must
have shewn the right hon. gentleman that this is not, in fact, the case, and must
have led him to perceive the obvious reasons for the course the Government has
pursued.

" The Resolutions moved by my noble friend last year were not formally as-
sented to; but there could not be the slightest doubt in the mind of any hon.
gentleman, that, upon a division they wmdd have been carried ; and the only
reason why they were not so was, that the hon. member for Preston, as usual,
moved an adjournment of the House, and a few days afterwards Parliament was
dissolved. They were not again brought forward for this simple reason, — that
there could not be a rational doubt on the mind of any man of what were the
sentiments of Parliament and of the country ; and it was thought most desirable,
from the danger of these discussions in this House, to avoid unnecessarily agita-
ting the question. It was their anxiety not to bring on such a debate which in-
duced the Government not to ask for the mere formal expression of an opinion
which could not be doubled, to postpone coming to Parliament until acting upon
that opinion, its concurrence in the measures to be adopted was actually to be
required. It was not, however, in disguise or concealment that they took their
course ; for after the debate in April last, not a day was lost in collecting the
materials for the Order in Council alluded to by my noble friend.

" The right hon, and gallant gentleman, the late Secretary of State for the
Colonial Department, in the despatch which accompanied the former Order in
Council, had stated to the governors of the different colonies, that certain points
were omitted in it on which he was not then prepared to legislate, but to which it
was intended to revert at a future opportunity. Now all must agree that, if we
were to make a specific offer to the Assemblies at all, it was most desirable that
the whole plan with which it was connected should be laid before them altoge-
ther. For this reason, a new Order in Council was drawn up to supply the
omissions of the former. The draft was printed and transmitted to the hon, and
learned gentleman opposite, to the agents of the different colonies, and to all
who were thought particularly interested in the subject ; they were at the same
time invited to make any objections or remarks, which they thought could be of
service, and contribute to render the Order in Council as complete and perfect as
possible. They accepted the invitation; remarks were sent in, which were care-
fully considered ; and considerable alterations were in consequence made in the
original draft. The Order in Council, so framed, was transmitted to the Crown
colonies in the first instance, and afterwards to the Legislative colonies, in a cir-

122 Delate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick.

culav despatch, in wliich Lord Godoi'ich explained the intentions of the Govern^
ment, and stated his extreme anxiety that the Colonial Legislature should under-
stand tiiat the only object of the Government was to promote the true interest of
all parties, and should be convinced that this course was not adopted in a spirit
of hostility towards the colonies ; but, on the conti-ai-y, in a sincere belief that it
was absolutely necessary for their own safety, tliat some decided step should at
length be taken.

" But I am going a little out of the line of argument I mean to pursue. The
hon. and learned gentleman has stated it as the gj^avamen of the charge against
the Government, that the Order in Council was required to be adopted without
alteration or amendment. The hon. and learned gentleman, in making that
charge, had not, I think, exactly considered what other course it was possible to
pursue. When certain advantages are to be granted or withheld according to
the compliance of a party, with particular conditions, is it not indispensably ne-
cessaiy that those conditions should be precise and definite ? We all know, from
daily experience in this country, that by some unexpected construction of the
expressions made use of, and by verbal inaccuracies, the intended objects of Acts
of Parliament are not unfrequently, in a great measure, defeated. Could the
Government, then, leave the framing of Acts, upon the wording of which their
whole efhciency must depend, to legislatures which were not anxious to accom-
plish the objects they were intended to promote, and which only yielded a reluc-
tant assent in the hope of participating in the advantages which were conditional
upon their doing so ? If the task of framing the Acts had been committed to tlie
Colonial Legislatures, how, let me ask, would it have been possible for the
Government to say, that any one colony was or was not entitled to the advan-
tages held out to those, which consented to the adoption of the measures recom-
mended to them ? Is it so easy to pronounce, positively, how far any given law
caiTies into effect its professed object? W^e know that the agents of the West
Indian colonies circulated last year an abstract of the laws passed by the differ-
ent local Legislatures, intended to shew that the Assemblies had, in many par-
ticulars, adopted the suggestions made to them ; whilst, on the other hand, the
Aiiti-Slaveji/ Repo7-te?', if I may be permitted to allude to it, entered into a long-
argument to shew that the supposed compliances with those suggestions had been
perfectly nugatory. I do not say which was right or which was wrong, but I
state the foct to shew how great a difference of opinion may exist as to the effect
of a law, and to prove the utter impossibility of the Government undertaking to
decide between the opposite constructions put by different parties upon the Acts
passed by so many separate legislatures.

" I should not trouble the House with any further vindication of the course
taken by the Government subsequent to the debate of April last, or with any
further reference to that debate, had not the hon. and learned gentleman brought
a charge against the Government, which I think it absolutely necessary to answer.
He has said, that what [massed on that occasion was die direct and exciting cause
of those calamities in Jamaica which we have now to deplore ; and, in proof of
that assertion, he states, that as soon as my speech arrived in the West Indies, it
became necessary to issue a proclamation, in order to undeceive the negroes as
to what was intended to be done. Now, what was the fact ? I will not venture
to assert that in my manner of speaking last year (though I totally deny having-
entertained the slightest feeling of bitterness or animosity against the gentlemen
connected with the West Indies) there may not have been, too great an appear-
ance of warmth ; if so — if there was anything in my speech which could be thought
by any hon. gentleman intemperate, or calculated to give offence, I can assure
him that it was not so intended ; having had no great experience in debate, and
that little on the benches opposite, that it is possible, in answering a speech to
w'hich I totally dissented, I may have adopted too much of the tone and manner
of a disputant, I will not deny; but I do most positively deny, that in conse-
quence of diat speech, it became necessary to issue the proclamation in question.

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick. 123

That proclamation was sent out at the instance of the hen. and learned gentle-
man opposite, of the agent for St. Vincent, and others interested in the West
Indian colonies, not in consequence of what passed in this House in April last,
but in consequence of what passed in the same month in the island of Antigua.
It was impossible tbat the debate on the intentions of the Government could have
been surmised in the West Indies in April ; but some slight disturbances having
occurred in Antigua in that month, and reports having reached this country that
an erroneous impression had been created in the minds of the slaves, the pro-
clamation alluded to was drawn up and sent out by Lord Goderich, with a cir-
cular despatch, dated the 3d of June (more than two months after the debate,)
in which the different governors were directed to issue the proclamation, in case
of its being found necessary to do so. Lord Belmore's answer to this despatch is
dated the 20th of July, and is among the papers which are now printing, and
which I am sorry are not in the hands of hon. members. Lord Belmore, in this
communication, informs Lord Goderich that the appearance of tranquillity among
the slave population was such, that he had not thought it necessary to publish
the proclamation ; and he then adds the following observations : —

" ' Accounts in the public papers will inform your Lordship of various parochial
meetings which have already assembled, and the resolutions they have adopted.
The transactions certainly m.amfest considerable excitement and alarm ; but, in my
apprehension, are more calculated to disturb the minds of the slaves than any re-
port they may casually have heard of something being intended for their benefit,
which their owners endeavour to withhold from them. My own opinion of the
slave population is, that, collectively, they are sound and well-disposed.'

"This, the House will observe, was written full two months after the speech,
which it is said did all the mischief, had arrived in Jamaica. But, although
Lord Belmore did not think it necessary to issue the proclamation, he thought it
right, in consequence of Lord Goderich's communication, to put the magistrates
of the different parishes upon their guard. I am sure that the hon. and learned
gentleman must have observed the two circulars written by Mr. Bullock, by
Lord Belmore's direction, to the custodes of the different parishes. In the first
of these letters he tells them, that Lord Goderich * had disclaimed, in the most
distinct manner, any intention on the part of his Majesty's Government to adopt
any measure wbich might have the effect of interfering with the spirit of the
Resolutions of the House of Commons of 1823, relative to the ultimate extinction
of slavery in his Majesty's colonies.' Further on, Mr. Bullock expresses a hope
* that this explicit declaration of his Majesty's Government will remove any alarm
or apprehension which some of the parochial resolutions 7nay have excited in the
winds of the community at large ; and Mr. Bullock concludes, by requesting the
custodes to give the greatest publicity to this communication. The hon. and
learned gentleman will find this letter in the correspondence published in the
Gazette, and he will see that the concluding sentence was intended to warn the
planters of the danger of the course which they were pursuing, and to point out
to them that mischief was to be apprehended, not so much from the debate which
had taken place in this House, as from the intemperate resolutions come to by
the colonists themselves.

"The second circular to which I have referred, and which is also in the Ga-
zette, is dated a few days after the former, on the 30th of July : it is marked
confidential, and is addressed, like the former, to the custodes. In this letter,
Mr. Bullock desires 'the earhest information of any circumstance which might
arise to require the adoption of further measures, in order to remove any erro-
neous impression which the slaves might have received of the designs of his
Majesty's Government;' and observes, 'that vigilance is more necessary, wlien
discussions had taken place which were liable to misconstruction or misrepresen-
tation.' This was six months before the insurrection broke out. On the 4th of
Augxist, Lord Belmore wrote word, ' that nothing had occurred to manifest the
least uneasiness or excitement among the slaves.' Afterwards, on the 6tli of

124 Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick.

September, Lord Belmore transmitted home various resolutions of the parochial
meetings, — terms them ' violent and intemperate,' and observes, that committees
had been appointed in some parishes to correspond with other districts, and had
nominated delegates. In a private letter, of the 21st of November, Lord Bel-
more gives a similar account ; and I am sure the Hon. and Learned Gentleman's
attention must have been attracted to the despatch of Lord Belmore, dated the
6th of January, printed in the Gazette, in which he observes —

" ' The delegates had sent forth an ambiguous declaration deprecating, as they ex-
pressed themselves, the insidious attempts to undermine and render valueless vs^hat
little remains of their property ; but the brink of danger on which they stood,
formed no part of their deliberations.'

In fact, the planters did not see their real danger. There seemed to have been
two notions in the minds of the slaves, which may be looked upon as the proxi-
mate causes of the insurrection : first, that the Government had sent out their
freedom, which their masters withheld from them; and, next, tliat if they at-
tempted to gain it by force, the King's naval force and regular troops would not
act against them. The overseer, who was in the power of the slaves, states in
his deposition, that some of the ringleaders asserted that the King's ships were
landing gunpowder, or black dust as they called it, to help the slaves in their
resistance. I will not trouble the House with reading the resolutions of the
planters which gave rise to these notions among the slaves. — [Mr. Burge here
said, " They have not been printed."] — They were printed in every newspaper in
the colony and in this country ; and they were certainly calculated to create pre-
cisely that false impression upon the minds of the slaves, which it is agreed pro-
duced the catastrophe. But, Sir, I will not read these resolutions, as the hon.
and learned gentleman objects : indeed, it is better that the violent language
which has been used should be forgotten. Nor did 1 mean to quote what passed
at the parish meetings in Jamaica during the last summer and autumn, to reproach
the planters ; they were, perhaps, not unnaturally excited by the distress they
suffered and the attacks to which they were exposed ; but I meant to shew the
danger occasioned by their giving way to their feelings, and by allowing an im-
pression to be made on the minds of the slaves, that a serious difference existed
between their masters and the Government.

" Sir, I think what I have now said sufficiently proves that it is not to the
policy pursued by the Government that the insurrection of the slaves in Jamaica
is to be attributed ; but I have a still stronger and most satisfactory proof to
adduce, that the tendency of that policy, when fully acted upon, is to avert, not
to produce disturbance. During the last autumn notions similar to those which
have led to such a melancholy catastrophe in Jamaica, obtained admittance into
the minds of the slaves in British Guiana ; but, instead of leading to a similar
result, the Governor was apprised of the fact by the slave protectors — in whom
the negroes know that they can confide — and was enabled to take measures to
avert the threatened mischief. Sir B. D'Urban not being kept in the same state
of ignorance as Lord Belmore, was able to take the steps which were necessary
to correct the false impression which had got abroad. He made a tour through
the colony, — had the most intelligent slaves of every gang brought before him at
particular places, — talked with them, and told them that if they attempted any-
thing like disturbance, the result would be great suffering to themselves, and per-
haps the defeat of the measures the Government intended for their benefit. What
was the consequence ? Why, that the Governor in his last despatches says, that he
never knew a Christmas pass off with greater gaiety and good humour. So that
on that fatal Wednesday morning, when so large a portion of the most fertile
district in Jamaica was laid waste with fire, the slaves in Guiana were enjoying
their holidays with the greatest good humour and gaiety. I think that this fact
is conclusive as to the wisdom and soundness of the policy pursued by his Ma-
jesty's Government in the Crown colonies. But it is not a solitary instance.
. " In Trinidad something of the same nature took place. On two estates there

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Lord Howick. 125

were a number of slaves who had been imported from Tortola ten years before,
as they said, under a promise of being set free in seven years. That time having
long expired, they resolved to work no more, and some of them had actually
gone into the woods. On Sir L. Grant being apprized of what was going on,
he went to the disturbed district, and settled everything quietly, by explaining to
the slaves, that if they had a right to their freedom, this was not the way to claim
it, and persuading them to send deputies to bring their case before the protector,
in order that it might be tried before the regular tribunal. In St. Lucia, on the
arrival of the Order in Council, the most violent and intemperate measures were
adopted by the planters, and although, in consequence of the death of the Go-
vernor, the administration of affairs was in the hands of the senior military
officer, who was twice changed in the midst of these transactions, nothing like an
insurrection took place.

" Sir, I contend that, in the instances I have adduced, the House has the
clearest and most decisive proofs of the beneficial tendency of the policy pursued
by the Government. That policy is calculated to effect a gradual, easy, and safe
transition from a state of slavery to a state of freedom. And, Sir, I do most
sincerely hope that the lesson which is oflTered in the catastrophe which has oc-
curred in one place, and the escape of three other colonies from similar calami-
ties, will not be lost upon the proprietors and planters of Jamaica. I trust they
will be convinced, not only that his Majesty's Ministers, in the policy that they
recommend, are doing that which they believe to be for their interest, but also
that they are correct in that belief. I most earnestly hope that all interested in
West Indian property will calmly reflect upon the present position of this ques-
tion. Let them bear in mind that it is only too true what they have themselves
so often asserted, that the discussions upon this subject are full of danger-— that
we are standing upon the brink of a frightful precipice, and that we ought, there-
fore, well to consider what ought to be our conduct in order to extricate ourselves
from so perilous a position.

" I am sure the hon. and learned gentleman need not be told, that there is in
this country a large and powerful party, who entertain a sincere and conscientious
belief, that it is a sacred duty imposed upon them, to endeavour by every means
in their power to effect the overthrow of the system of slavery in the West Indies,
the continuance of which, even for a single day, entails, in their opinion, such
deep moral guilt upon all who even passively contribute to its support. He must
be equally well aware, that of those who are not prepared to adopt (which I cer-
tainly am not) these extreme opinions, and the violent measures supported by
the hon. member for Weymouth, the immense majority of all ranks and condi-
tions of society, only tolerate the temporary continuance of slavery, because they
believe that by a more cautious and temperate course of proceeding, the same
end may be accomplished, and a great and acknowledged evil be got rid of, with
a less amount of human suffering than might be occasioned by immediate and
sudden emancipation. Such, Sir, is the recorded opinion of Parliament, upon
which honourable members have regulated their conduct, and which they have
endeavoured to carry into effect with a view not less to the real interest of the
proprietors in the colonies, than to that of the slaves themselves.

" Sir, when we consider the opinions universally entertained, — when we re-
member that almost every Englishman will declare, that we are bound to effect
either the gradual, or the immediate abolition of slavery — let me ask, how can
that sudden and violent change, from which, like the honourable and learned
gentleman, I should anticipate so much mischief, be averted, except by satisfying
the public mind, that a real improvement is taking place in the condition of the
slaves ? This, Sir, is the only mode in which those discussions, which we must
all think so dangerous, can be prevented. And here, I cannot but call upon the
House to remember, that during the discussions upon the Abolition of the Slave
Trade, it used constantly to be said that the debates in Parliament were calcu-
lated to disturb the minds of the slaves, and excite them to insurrection : if so

126 Debate on the Su[/ar Duties. — Lord Howick.

— if such an effect could be produced, when so large a proportion of the slave
population consisted of ignorant savages, recently imported from the coast of
Africa, — what must be the effect of the discussions of the present day ? The
slave trade has now been abolished for the last twenty-five years in the British
colonies. Since that period, a race of slaves has grown up in our colonies, ac-
quainted with our language, some of them converted to our religious faith, and,
with that faith, with tlieir increasing intelligence, they have necessarily acquired
a sense of their degraded condition, and an anxious desire for its improvement.
These feelings are, of course, fostered by their connexion with the class of free
persons daily becoming more numerous, who have emerged from the same state
of slavery. But these discussions are more dangerous than formerly, not only
from the alteration which has taken place in the character of the slave popula-
tion, but also in consequence of their being brought much more immediately
within the reach and hearing of the controversy. We must not only calculate the
difference between the savage African and the Creole slave who speaks perhaps
our language, but we must also take into the account the increased attention
which the controversy is likely to attract, now that it is carried on, not at the
other side of the Atlantic, but in the colonies themselves. Formerly in the colo-
nies, at least, the discussions on this subject were all on one side, and no one
dreamt of breathing a word in favour of emancipation ; indeed, any one who
stood forward as the advocate of the slave, would have been overwhelmed on all
sides. But what is the case now ? A large and influential class of free persons
has grown up in the colonies, whose religious opinions induce them to adopt the
notions on slavery of the hon. member for Weymouth. Among the conductors
of the colonial press, powerful advocates of these opinions are not wanting.
There is now a newspaper published in the town of Kingston, in Jamaica, con-
ducted, undoubtedly, with considerable talent and ability ; but, at the same time,
I am sorry to say, with by no means equal temper or moderation. I do not blame
the editors of this paper for the spirit in which it is written ; with the example
which is set by their opponents of still greater violence, it is not to be expected that
they should abstain from strong language; I mention it not to censure or impute
improper motives to any one, but as a fact too important to be lost sight of, — that
the controversy relative to the abolition of slavery is now raging with yet greater
violence in Jamaica than it is at home. The Watchman on the one side, and the Ja-
maica Courant on the other, urge, in the strongest language, the extreme doctrines
of either party.* That such a dispute, so maintained, must produce a powerful
effect on the minds of the slaves, and that it must make the existing state of
things one full of danger, it is impossible to doubt. It becomes, then, urgently
and vitally important to determine by what course the fatal catastrophe which
this state of things threatens can be avoided. After the most mature deliberation
of the subject, it appeared to the Government that the only course left open is,
steadily, temperately, but, at the same time, with firmness and determination, to
enforce a full compliance with the Resolutions of 1823. This is the course which
the present Government have pursued — this is the course which I trust that
Parliament will continue to support; and, however much we have hitherto
been disappointed, this course I also trust the Legislature of Jamaica will at
length be prevailed upon to adopt. They have admitted the free people of colour
to the enjoyment of civil rights, and I trust that the same feeling which induced
them to yield in this instance will induce them to abandon their opposition to
the measures recommended by the Parliament and the Government. In putting
an end to the distinctions of colour, they have evinced a liberality which, when

^ We regret to see Lord Howick do such great injustice to the Jamaica Watchmayi
as for a moment to compare it for violence of language to the Courant, Upon the
Slave Question, at least, the Watchman has been remarkably cautious and tem-
perate, whilst the Courant, on the contrary, has taken the lead- of all the colonial
Pro-Slavery papers in outrageous, disloyal, and bloodthirsty violence.

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Mr. Gordon. — Mr. -Hume. 127

we consider how powerfully the minds of men are affected by long-cherished
prejudices, cannot be praised too highly ; and I trust that an equal liberality will
soon be exhibited by them, in the far more dangerous and difficult question of
slavery. I hope that the decision of Government, to come forward to afford
assistance to the sufferers by the insurrection and by the hurricane, in the manner
which my Noble Friend has stated, not coupled with any conditions, will be
accepted by the colonists as a proof that no ill-will or animosity has been excited
towards them by their long resistance to the measures which they have been
urged to adopt; but that, on the contrary, the House and the Government sym-
pathise in their distress, and can pity their misfortunes : and I also hope, that by
attaching the proposed conditions to the general measure of relief which is to be
brought forward, Parliament will manifest that resolute adherence to its declared
purpose of effecting a real improvement in the condition of the slaves, which is,
I believe, no less necessary than a conciliatory spirit, for the satisfactory settle-
ment of the question.

" Before 1 sit down, I must express my regret, that in the course of what I
have had to say, I have been under the necessity of making some observations
implying censure of the past conduct of the Colonial Legislatures, and of stating
truths which, I fear, will not be agreeable to those interested in the West India
colonies. I have been induced to do this only by my conviction that, in the pre-
sent critical situation of their affairs, it is the first duty of one sincerely anxious
for the welfare of these colonies, frankly and candidly to point out to them the
errors which have been committed, and the dangers by which they are, in conse-
quence, surrounded. I hope, therefore, that what I have said will be received as
it was intended, and that where no offence was meant, no offence will be taken."

Mr. Robert Gordon, in a short speech, deprecated the introduction of topics
calculated to excite angry feelings on either side, and recommended conciliatory
measures towards the colonies.

Mr. Hume, after some sti'ictures upon the system of the British Government
in the management of our colonies generally, observed, in reverting to the pre-
sent question, that to the Parliamentary Resolutions of 1823, he did not think that
any man who possessed the common feelings of humanity could object; and he
hoped that they would be carried into effect to the fullest extent they were capable
of. The House, however anxious it might be in the cause of humanity, was bound
to do justice to those parties who stood unfortunately in the situation of slave
proprietors ; and it was equally the interest of those proprietors to go along with
Parliament in raising the condition of the unfortunate slave population. But the
West Indians, he contended, agreed in every thing which that house proposed for
the benefit of those in whose favour the resolutions of May, 1823, were framed.
What did those resolutions set forth ? The first recognized the justice and pro-
priety ot ameliorating the situation of the slave population. Now he never met
an individual connected with the West Indies, with whom he had conversed on
this subject, who dissented from the proposition contained in that resolution.
Upon that point the House of Commons and the West India proprietors were
agreed. The second resolution set forth, that temperate and judicious measures
should be taken for the progressive improvement of the slave population, in order
to fit them for the enjoyment of the rights and privileges that were possessed by
other classes of His Majesty's subjects. Again, he never heard one of the West
India proprietors express himself against that proposition. His hon. friend, the
member for Weymouth, wished this change to be immediate, and not gradual;
but he could not concur with him, because the negroes were not prepared to enjoy
those advantages which freedom, if they were educated, would impart to them.
Successive Ministers had endeavoured to ameliorate the situation of the negroes ;
and though much still remained to be done, yet he could not agree with the
noble viscount in declaring, for so he understood the noble viscount, that nothing
whatever had been effected by his predecessors in office. The papers on the table,
indeed, proved that a great deal had been done. The third resolution set forth, that

128 Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Mr. Buxton.

the House was desirous, for the safety of the colonies, that, in altering the condition
of the slaves, a fair and equitable consideration of the interests of private property
should be adopted. He would ask, had this last proposition been ever acted
on ? Had any plan of emancipation been proposed, by which the rights of pro-
perty would be respected ? No such thing. If he understood the papers rightly,
if he understood what had occurred in the colonies, he must arrive at this con-
clusion,— that the West Indians rejected certain propositions, because they were
not accompanied by a measure which would have the effect of securing that re-
spect which was due to their property and to their interests. He believed that if
a plan were devised by which the amelioration of slavery could be effected,
while property was respected, the colonists would gladly agree to such an arrange-
ment. The noble viscount stated that we stood on the brink of a frightful pre-
cipice. He admitted that such was the fact. And then came the question — were
the measures proposed by His Majesty's Ministers calculated to avert the danger?
Trinidad, Jamaica, St. Lucia, had all protested against the proceedings adopted
by Ministers. Their protests, he allowed, were strong and violent; but looking
to all the circumstances, that was not to be wondered at. He hoped when his
hon. friend, the member for Weymouth, brought forward his motion, that Minis-
ters would be ready to state in what way they proposed to ameliorate the situa-
tion of the slave, and at the same time to give security to property. The measure
of October last, was a rash and hasty one, and the flame which it had excited in
the colonies might have been avoided, if the Ministers had waited for the opinion
of a Committee of that House and of the House of Lords.

Mr. Buxton then rose and spoke as follows : — " The hon. member for Mid-
dlesex has complained of every body, with only one exception. It seems I am
rash ; the Orders in Council are mischievous ; the Government are seriously to
blame ; the planters alone are meritorious in his eyes. My hon. friend has stated
that he never met with a planter who was disposed to dispute the authority of
the Legislature at home, or who objected to the Resolutions of 1823. I do not
ask what they may say ; but has my hon. friend ever met with a planter who was
ready to carry the Resolutions of 1823 into effect ? Let me state the plain truth
to the House. We have heard much of the tumults and disturbances in the
colonies, but, I believe, comparatively little is known in this country of what
takes place in Jamaica and some of the colonies. I would ask hon. gentlemen
whether they are aware what was the last point discussed in the House of Assem-
bly in Jamaica before the late events in that island ? It was whether women
should be flogged in public or not." — [Several, Honourable Members. —
" Oh ! Oh ! "] — " I am resolved to speak out. I repeat, this was the question
discussed in the Colonial Assembly in Jamaica. Hon. gentlemen may be un-
willing to hear, but I am determined to state the facts to the House. I have been
almost challenged to come forward, and I will declare the truth. The Colonial
Assemblies have been designated as obedient to the wishes of Parliament, but I
would ask, what has been done ? As I said before, one of the last points dis-
cussed was whether women should be flogged in public. Now the abolition of
this practice was urgently dwelt upon by Mr. Canning. He called the flogging
of women an unseemly and detestable practice ; and declared that the immediate
discontinuance of it was the first step to be taken towards the moral advance-
ment of the slave. This, therefore, it was understood was a point which the Go-
vernment was to press on the colonies ; and yet, in the year 1831, the Assembly
of Jamaica rejected a proposition for the abolition of the' flogging of women by a
majority of 35 to 2. And yet my hon. friend, the member for Middlesex, sees
nothing to condemn in their conduct. After this illustration of the good feeling
and cheerful obedience of the planters, let me be told what other steps they have
taken to fit the negroes for emancipation.

" If I had seen any disposition on the part of the Colonial Assemblies to pre-
pare the Negroes for emancipation by the communication of religious instruction,
it would have been some satisfaction. I will not say that the adoption of such

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Mr. Buxton. 12^

a course would have prevented me from urging tlie matter on the attention of the
House ; but if there was any thing that would have tempted me to forbear, it
would have been seeing such a disposition on the part of the planters •,—th.at
would indeed have been a bribe to me. But now I do not hesitate to declare,
that the whole aim of the Colonial Assemblies has been to suppress the religious
instruction of the Negro. This is the direct charge which I make against the
Colonial Assemblies of all the colonies. Individual and honourable exceptions
there have been, but the general aim and object is the suppression of religious
instruction. Let the House recollect only a single case which is an illustration
of this. I am sure the case of the missionary Smith, of Demarara, is not yet
forgotten. Now not only was this martyr persecuted to death, but the people of
Demarara entered into a resolution, that the missionaries ought to be banished
from the colonies, and that a law should be passed to prevent their entering it
for the future.

" In Trinidad a public meeting was held, at which a public functionary of the
colony presided, when the persons assembled came to the following resolution on
the subject of instruction ; ' Resolved, That any attempt to instil religious in-
struction or education into the minds of ihe slaves is incompatible with the
continuance of slavery.' Here the fact is candidly confessed — Christianity is
indeed a blessing, but so is slavery ; unfortunately they are incompatible. If
you will have religion you must renounce slavery, and if you will retain slavery,
you must do without religion. In this dilemma they came to the resolution to
reject the lesser and retain the greater and more necessary blessing.

" In Barbadoes, need I remind the House of the disposition to foster religion
evinced by their celebrated proceedings in 1323 ; the respectable inhabitants
assembled and publicly proceeded to the demolition of the chapel; they hunted the
missionary through the island, with the avowed purpose of taking his life. They
published a proclamation exulting in what they had done ; it was a day, to use
their own words, * as glorious to true Barbadians as Trafalgar to Britain ;' and
they conculded with warning every missionary from the island under a penalty
of death. What J think of such acts is of little moment. Can honourable gen-
tlemen forget the strong language once used by this House relative to this tran-
saction ? The memorable words of the resolution were, ' That this House deem
it their duty to declare, that they view with the utmost indignation that daring
and scandalous violation of law.'

"I now come to Jamaica, with which colony the hon. and learned gentle-
man (Mr. Burge) is more immediately connected, and I do not hesitate to
assert, that in no place is the spirit of religious persecution more unequivocally
manifested. I need hardly advert to the language of the colonial newspapers, —
' the hanging woods of Trelawney,' — the clamour against the too indulgent
Governor, who refused to hang the missionaries before trial; — let newspaper
ebullitions pass. But look to the Act of the Legislative Assembly of Jamaica in
1826. The planters were obedient enough as far as words went ; they announced
their intention of introducing an Act, which should for ever put to silence the
cavils of their enemies on the score of religion ; they passed the act ; and then boast
of it as if they they had accomplished some miracle of charity. The Act comes
over to England, and there is rejected, first by Mr. Huskisson, and the Govern-
ment to which he belonged ; secondly, by the right hon. and gallant General
opposite (Sir George Murray) and the Government to which he belonged ; and
thirdly, by the noble lord, the present Secretary for the colonies. To use the
language of Mr. Huskisson, it was rejected by him ' because it was a violation
of that toleration which is due to all His Majesty's subjects.' This Act, which
in Jamaica was cried up as a measure of excessive liberality, and had no fault
but that of carrying Christian toleration too far, was rejected in this country with
indignation, as an Act of unbearable bigotry. I do not hesitate to assert, that it
was an Act of intolerable oppression, and one that has gone further than almost
anything else to excite detestation of slavery in the breasts of the people of

s

130 Debate on the Suyar Duties, — Mr. Buxton.

England. The meaning of that Act -was the suppression of religious instruction.
It was an attempt to do that by process of law in Jamaica, which was done by
violence in Barbadues — by murder in Demarara — an expedient for shutting up
the schools, puUing-down the chapel, and banishing the teachers. Nay, the
purpose was not concealed ; the Committee in Jamaica to whom it was referred,
give this recommendation, ' that the most positive and exemplary enactments
should be passed to restrain the interference of the missionaries.' But nothing,
perhaps, will so clearly illustrate the temper of the Jamaica planters on the sub-
ject of the religious instruction of their slaves, as one or two cases which I will
quote. 1 recommend them to the serious attention of gentlemen who have
heard much of the beneficent treatment and superior happiness of the Negro. To
those also I recommend them who believe in the often asserted disposition of the
planters to promote religious instruction. But more especially do I recommend
them to the diligent reflection of the Member for Middlesex, and of all those who
with him hate religious persecution ; for he will find, in what I am going to state,
persecution, not in its modern and mitigated meaning; not that which carries this
odious name in Ireland and elsewhere, the denial of civil rights, the usurpation
of authority in matters of conscience ; but persecution as meant in the worst
and darkest of times — in the days of Queen Mary, in the dungeons of the inqui-
sition— persecution to torments and to death.

" The first case to which I shall allude is that of Henry Williams. I am not
aware whether the House is acquainted with the facts of this case; if my hon.
friend says that he is acquainted with this case, and at the same time declares
that there is no religious persecution in Jamaica, I will not go on with the sub-
ject. I ask my hon. friend whether he is acquainted v;ith the case to which I re-
fer?" [Mr. Hume. — " I know nothing about it."] "Then he ought to know
something about it, and I will tell him. The negro in question was accused of
no fault ; he was a remarkably respectable man, and entrusted, in some degree,
with the superintendence of his fellow slaves. He belonged to the congregation
of the missionaries, and attended chapel many years with his master's sanction.
His master dying, a new system was adopted by the new manager, a Mr. Betty,
who issued anathemas against the chapel, and told Henry Williams that if he
attended there again, lie should be sent to Rodney Hall workhouse. On hearing
this, the sister of Williams sighed, and for that offence she was instantly stretched
naked on the earth, in the presence of the gang, and severely flogged. This was
the award of this * natural protector' of the slaves, as the planters call them-
selves ; this was ' willing obedience' to the voice of the people of England ; this
was toleration ; this was humanity ; this was justice. But to return to Williams :
he obeyed the order, and abstained from chapel ; but Mr. Betty, who was evi-
dently resolved to put down the missionaries with a high band, and to make an
example of their best convert, found a pretence in Williams's not having also
brought the gang with him to church : he sent him to Rodney Hall workhouse,
where he was loaded with chains, flogged repeatedly, till he was reduced to such
a state, that even the gaoler took pity on him, and sent him to the hospital,
where he was obliged to lie on his face, his back being one mass of corruption.
I refer gentlemen for further details of this case to the Parliamentary Papers. —
Nor is it a solitary one ; but it is not my intention to dwell on the acts of indi-
viduals, however atrocious ; and I only mention this one, in order to impress
on the House the further, and much more appalling fact, that Mr. Betty said,
and said truly, that all his proceedings on this case were fully justified by the
existing laws of Jamaica. The case was submitted to the law authorities there
as well as in England ; and it was the opinion of these authorities, that there was
no law which forbad the flogging of the female for sighing, or of her brother for
worshipping God. Mr. Betty's language was — ' Submit the act to a jury of
twelve honest planters, and their verdict shall convince you that I have exercised
only the undoubted and constitutional rights of a West India manager. I did
flog the woman ; I did send the man to the workhouse ; was there any thing

Debate OH the Suijar Duties. — Mr. Buxton. 131

illegal in it ? ' Trouble me/ he says to the right honourable baronet, Sir
George Murray, 'trouble me not with your interrogatories; I will answer none
of them.' The same law which permits the torment of these innocent beings,
justifies those by whom those tormen'.s are inflicted. I complain not of Mr.
Betty — he acted as a ruffian, but he acted legally; my complaint is levelled at
the law, which makes such acts legal. Law in England is for the protection of
the weak ; in Jamaica it is the security and safeguard of those who, like Mr.
Betty, first revel in the sufferings of their fellow-creatures, and then plead the
law as their justification. But what if a tumult had been excited ? Suppose
such a riot as that which has lately occurred in Jamaica — (it may have been more
than a riot — it may have been an insurrection ; but I can shew who are the real
insurgents ; I will undertake to prove to demonstration that the planters were
the authors of these disturbances.) — Suppose a riot had occurred on the occasion
which I have alluded to, who could have lamented it? If the miscreant who com-
mitted this atrocity had been put to death on the spot, who could have lamented
it? I know that if this had occurred we should have heard of insurrection, and
the Government would have been called upon to put martial law in force. And
is the Government to feel no compassion, and Parliament to afford no protec-
tion to those whose sighs are visited as crimes, and whose religion is rewarded
by the cart whip ? I cannot refrain from mentioning one more case, that of a
negro, who, in 1830, was found guilty of merely having attended a prayer-meet-
ing at the house of his pastor, and having been seen in the act of prayer. —
This was the only charge against him, and he was convicted of that crime
and sentenced to imprisonment and flogging. It will be unnecessary for me to
go into the facts of the case."

Mr. BuRGE here said, — " I rise to order. I put it to the House whether this
train of argument ought to be continued."

Mr. Buxton continued — " I am in order, and I will go on. The hon. and
learned member has provoked this discussion, and he shall have it. I forget the
name of the slave, but I will state the circumstances of the case. It appears
that Mr. Nibbs, a dissenting clergyman, being ill, his congregation met on Eas-
ter Monday for the purpose of prayer. In this there was nothing illegal ; but a
negro who attended by permission of his master, perpetrated an act which aroused
the indignation of the colonists. He was seen in the act of prayer." [Several
Members. — " Oh ! oh !"] " Gentlemen may well be astonished at what I have
related, but I am satisfied of the correctness of my statement. If the Noble Lord,
the Under Secretary for the Colonies, will say that I have deviated from the truth
in the slightest degree, I will sit down. If the Gallant Officer will say that
I have exaggerated the facts of the case in the slightest degree, I will at once sit
down. But until I am contradicted I will continue to repeat what I know to be
the truth. I repeat, then, that tlie negro, whose name I have for the moment
forgotten, and which the Noble Lord will perhaps have the goodness to recall to
my mind, was tried for having been seen in the act of prayer. I do not recollect
the name of the man at this moment, but I have no doubt 1 shall presently ; but
the truth is I was not aware that a discussion of this nature would have arisen, or
I would have prepared myself for the occasion. When the slave was put on his
trial, he said that he had been guilty of no crime. One witness deposed that he
saw the man's lips move; another that he was in the attitude of prayer; another
made nearly a similar deposition. On the trial, Mr. Nibbs acted as the prisoner's
counsel as well as his pastor, and he said that there was no charge against the slave,
as prayer was not illegal. The Gustos replied that praying was preaching, and
unlicensed preaching was illegal, and consequantly convicted the prisoner. I
now recollect that the name of the slave was Swiney. He was convicted ; and
thus Mr. Nibbs describes the result : — ' Early on the following morning, I went
out express to see the disgusting scene that was then enacted. What my feelings
were I will not now express, when I saw a fellow creature — a respectable trades-
man of his class — stretched indecently on the earth, and lacerated with a cart whip,
and immediately after chained to a convict and sent to work on the road — to
s:ratify the prejudices of those who hold that preaching and praying arc the

132 Debate on the Sugar Duties.- — Mr. Buxton.

same, and equally infractions of the law of Jamaica.' I will pledge myself to
the facts of this case . Now for another. A negro was convicted of a similar
offence in August, 1830, and sentenced to an equally severe punishment. Ilis
name was Ankle. The fu'st witness said, 'I saw him stand up and pray.' The
second ' he is in the habit of praying.' They are asked what is the cha-
racter of the man ; — 'An excellent man; always pleases every body.' His own
defence is that he thought there was no harm in praying for himself and his com-
panions that God would bless them all. Convicted, and sentenced to six months'
imprisonment with hard labour. — A white man and his wife were convicted of
the most horrible murder — Gentlemen will not forget the red pepper rubbed into
the eyes of the dying victim — and were sentenced to five months imprisonment
and a fine ; — so much more criminal is it in the eyes of planters for a negro to
worship God, than for a white man to commit murder ! — Other pleas may be
given for punishing slaves, but the face and front of their offence is their attending
religious worship. This is the great, the unpardonable crime in the eyes of the
planters. After the facts which I have stated, which at once demonstrate the exist-
ence of religious persecution, the defence of the honourable and learned mem-
ber for Eye falls to the ground. The truth is that nothing has been done for the
religious instruction of these people. There are many exceptions, but the system
of slavery requires that its victims should be kept in darkness, and have no know-
ledge of divine truth.

" If it be true, as the people of Trinidad tell us ' that religious instruction and
slavery are incompatible,' the people of England have then to determine, whether
the slave population of the colonies shall or shall not be entirely debarred from
religious instruction, and from the blessings and consolations which Christianity
holds out to them. I do not mean to deny that there has been a rebellion in Ja-
maica— I do not mean to say that it was not attended with danger — but I say
that the planters were the cause of it. (Hear ! Hear !) I repeat that the planters
were the cause of it, and I wash my words to be taken down. For the last six
months what have we heard of, in their Colonial Assemblies, but seditious and in-
flammatory language, the tendency of which was to excite tumult? Public meet-
ings have been held in every parish in Jamaica, in which they have talked of
casting off the yoke of Great Britain, and of throwing themselves upon America
for protection. They have told this country that they are prepared to take up
arms — that they are ready to shake off their allegiance, and to go to war with the
mother country. It may be thought that I have exaggerated the language used at
these public meetings, but as a proof that this is not the case, I will refer to the re-
solutions agreed to at a meeting of the parish of St. Ann, in the island of Jamaica.
I find the following resolutions in the Royal Gazette of the 13th of August.

" ' At a very numerous and respectable meeting of the inhabitants of the parish of
St. Ann, convened by his honour the Gustos, this 6th day of August 1831, and held
at the Court House, St. Ann's Bay, his honour the Gustos having been called to the
chair, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to :

" ' Resolved— That we, the inhabitants of the parish of St. Ann, have repeatedly
expressed our warmest indignation at, and abhorrence of, the oppressive measures
pursued by the British Government towards the West India Golonies.

" ' Resolved — That while there was a hope of conciliating our implacable foes,
we acquiesced cheerfully in the conduct of our legislature ; but it is now evident
that the concessions yielded by that body, have been successively obtained under
pledges and promises on the part of Ministers, ' to abstain from all future interfer-
ence in our local concerns ;' which pledges have been violated in every instance ;
giving us thereby convincing proof that pei-tidy and determined oppression, as far
as regards the colonies, are the ruling principles of the British Cabinet.

" ' Resolved — That hitherto, under the most marked infractions of our rights and
privileges, we have been loyal ; the attachment to the mother country has indeed
long, very long, outlived her justice ; and it would now be with grief that we should
divest ourselves of a feeling, ' which has grown with our growth, and has strength-
ened with our strength ;' but when we see ourselves scorned, betrayed, devoted to
ruin and slaughter, delivered over to the enemies of our country, we consider that
we are bound by ever principle, human and divine, to resist,'

Debate on the Sugar Duties. — Mr. Buxton. 133

" The two last words are printed in capitals. Again I would call the attention
of tlie House to an advertisement, which appeared in The Courant of the 16th
of July last.

" ' Shortly will be published. The Signal, Carpe Diem, a periodical work, writ-
ten for the express purpose of rousing the latent energies of the inhabitants of Ja-
maica ; to lay open the perils which await them ; to point out the means of avoiding
them ; to stimulate all classes to a close and unanimous effort in defence and pre-
servation of their just rights and privileges, their altars, their homes, their fami-
lies, their properties, and their lives ; to show the necessity of throwing off the
yoke of a tyrannical Government ; and, finally, to lead to that independence of
which local advantages promise the attainment.

" ' The Government which arbitrarily or capriciously invades the right of pri-
vate property, releases the oppressed sufferer from obedience and allegiance. — To
your tents, O Israel ! '

"Such is the language used in their newspapers as well as at their public meet-
ings. I know that nothing is to be feared from such language, as it is rather
ridiculous than any thing else. I know well that they cannot think seriously of
throwing themselves into the arms of America. As for resistance that would be
quite out of the question. How can the whites of Jamaica think seriously of
throwing off the yoke, when the whole male white inhabitants of that colony
capable of bearing arms, between the age of sixteen and sixty, does not exceed
4,000. I say, I do not dispute the valour of this band ; but these 4,000 heroes
would have something upon their hands ; they would have, first, to conquer his
Majesty's troops — no doubt an easy task ; secondly, they would have to over-
throw the free people of colour ; and having accomplished these two exploits,
they would have to subdue, and to keep in subjection, 330,000 slaves. I
acquit them, then, of seriously meaning to punish Great Britain; they meant to
frighten us here ; they supposed that timid persons would imagine that men so
terrible in word, would be as terrible in deed. They talk of transferring their
allegiance to America. Will the free people and the negroes consent to it? Now
I hold in my hand an Act of the Legislature of Carolina, which I will quote for
the purpose of showing, whether there is likely to be a junction between the
colonies and America. It is called, An Act for the better Government of our
Slave population. It states, that if any vessels arrive at any state in that
place containing a crew of free blacks, they shall be immediately taken to gaol,
there to remain for a given time. The clause contains these words, to which I
will beg to direct the attention of the House — ' and such free people, or persons
of colour, shall be deemed and taken as absolute slaves, and sold, in conformity
with the provisions of the Act passed for that purpose.' Why this is a positive
decision upon the subject, a clear answer to the argument to which I have just
referred. There is not a Government on the face of the earth which has expressed
such disaffection to, and contempt of persons of colour, as the American Govern-
ment. Here is the olive branch. This is the temptation held out by America to
seduce away the affections of the people of colour. England need fear no dan-
gerous rival in that quarter. — I have done ; 1 had no intention of speaking to-
night, and if I have spoken warmly, the learned member for Eye, and the hon.
member for Middlesex imposed upon me the necessity of doing so."

Mr. GouLBURN deprecated the discussion of the subject of Slavery on the
present occasion, and wished to confine the attention of the House to the main
question now before them. He approved of the liberal conduct of Government,
in compensating the planters for the losses they had sustained, and thought that
great evils and dangers would be thereby averted. But he contended, that Mi-
nisters were bound to declare their specific intentions in regard to the proposed
plan of relief, for the benefit and satisfaction both of the growers and consumers
of sugar.

Lord Sandon followed in the same strain; severely blaming Mr. Buxton for
intemperate language on the Slavery question ; and while he admitted that the
colonists had been guiliy of great indiscretion, he thought that much allowance

1 34 Intelligence from Jamaica. — Persecution of Missionaries.

should be made for them on accouat of their situation, their behef that their in-
terests were neglected by Government, and the provocation they had received by
the language used towards them by certain parties in this country.

Lord Althorp stated in reply, that the Order in Council which had been sent
out to the colonies was the Order, a compliance with which was the condition on
which relief was to be granted. At the same time, if any gentlemen connected
with the colonies could point out any thing in the details, the operation of which
would be unsuitable to the management of the slaves, his Majesty's Government
would be quite ready to attend to such suggestions ; but to the principle of the
Order in Council, his Majesty's Government were determined to adhere. After
some remarks on the introduction of the Slavery question into the present discus-
sion, which he showed had been necessarily brought on by the course adopted by
the West India gentlemen, the noble lord, in explanation of not staling in detail the
intended course of proceeding, observed, that the grounds upon which he ab-
stained from doing so were, first, that up to the present moment the Committee
upon West India Affairs had not made their report; and secondly, as the mea-
sures of relief were to be conditional, he wished to give time to the Colonial
Legislatures to consider the Order in Council before the measures of relief were
brought forward. The alterations to which he had alluded would be merely in
the details of the Order; the principle would remain precisely the same. No
delay would therefore take place.

Mr. Keith Douglas said, that the principal objection made to the Order in
Council was, that it was inapplicable to the state of many of the colonies. But
if his Majesty's Government were willing to re-consider the details of die Order,
to which the chief objections applied, then, to a certain extent, the whole question
was altered, and the explanation of the noble lord might lead to a satisfactory
issue. Every person would allow that, in the present state of the West Indies,
it was desirable they should have perfectly new laws for the protection of the
slaves ; and therefore he hoped that the explanation now given would remove
the difficulty, which he believed was principally owing to the belief that the
Order in Council was to be applied verbatim et literatim.

The House then resolved itself into Committee on the Bill.

We postpone all remarks upon this debate, and on the measures proposed by
Government, until the Report of the Committee shall appear.

II. Recent Intelligence from Jamaica.
Persecution of the Missionaries — Treatmeiit of Henri/ Williams.

The disturbances in Jamaica have been for the present suppressed, with the
vmnecessary effusion apparently of much negro blood, and the perpetration of
much wanton cruelty. The details are, however, as yet too imperfectly known
to enable us to enter upon a satisfactory examination of these lamentable trans-
actions and their probable results ; and we therefore confine ourselves to one or
two brief extracts from the Watchman newspaper.

Our readers are aware that, as usual on like occasions, a violent outcry has
been raised by the Jamaica slave-holders against the Christian Missionaries,
denouncing them as the direct instigators of the late negro insurrection, and
calling loudly for their blood, or, at the very least, for their entire extirpation
from the colony. Several of them, Wesleyans, Moravians, and more especially
Baptists, have been tried or examined; but the slightest shadow of blame has not
been made good against them, even before Jamaica courts of justice. Never-
theless, such is the state of colonial feeling, that some of these worthy servants of
their Divine Master, for no odier offence than preaching his Gospel to those
wretched outcasts of humanity, the negro slaves, have narrowly escaped assas-
sination ; and their chapels, to the number of ten or twelve, have been burnt or
pulled down by the infuriated wjiite inhabitants. The following are some of the •
remarks of the Watchman on this subiect : —

Intelligence from Jamaica. — West India Inquiry. 135

" A hue and cry has been raised by a venal press, first against one missionary,
and then against another; slill we do not find a single circumstance to criminate
them, if we except the testimony of a few rebels and traitors, whose iniquitous
acts should at once invalidate their evidence. Under other circumstances, no
reasonable man would listen to their tales; but because they happen to make
against the missionaries, men who have been, almost without intermission, per-
secuted and reviled in this island for many years past, they are greedily caught
at, and by many implicitly believed. In short, testimony is received against
them, which would be scouted at and rejected if brought forward against any
%chite man, not suspected of being a saint.

" That the negroes rebelled, and were guilty of acts the most unjustifiable, is
admitted ; but how their acts can be charged on the missionaries, we leave tlie
prejudiced, the vindictive, and sanguinary, to explain. The fact is, a confederacy
exists against every thing which savours of religion, and the extermination of
Christianity is the object of the infamous coalition. When the Bible is denounced
by a newspaper,* published in the city of Kingston, in the island of Jamaica, as
a blasphemous and unchaste book, can it be wondered at that exertions are being
made for the destruction of the places of public worship, and the annihilation of
Christianity itself? But let the chapel destroyers, and those who are even now
plotting the destruction of those places of worship in this and Spanish Town, be-
ware ! for retributive justice still exists. Those already destroyed are said to
have cost upwards of £14,000. This sum will again be raised for the rebuilding
of those very places, consecrated to the worship of the Most High God, which the
hands of fiendish impiety have levelled with the ground."

We add the following notice of the recent treatment of that unfortunate Chris-
tian slave, Henry Williams, the particulars of whose previous persecution we have
detailed in Nos. 65, 69, and 77, of the Reporter: (see also p. 130, of this No.)

" The public may no doubt recollect the slave, Henry Williams, who was so
severely punished by Mr. Betty, at the instigation of the Rev. George Wilson
Bridges, the rector of St. Ann's, because he refused to attend the ministry of that
rev. gentleman, preferring that of the Wesleyan missionaries, to which society he
belonged. This unfortunate slave, we understand, was, about a week ago, taken
from the estate, which he had been superintending in the absence of the white
people, (who were on militia duty,) and questioned as to what the missionaries
at that place had preached to them, &c.; but his answers, we are told, were
deemed unsatisfactory and impertinent, and he was sentenced to receive 340
lashes, the whole of which could not be inflicted, a doctor who was near by,
declaring he would die under it. We do not profess to be acquainted with all the
particulars of this case of unparalleled barbarity ; but, as soon as we are in pos-
session of them, we shall not fail to expose the whole case and its authors to
public execration."

III. Committee of Inquiry in the House of Lords.
A Committee of Inquiry on West India affairs in the House of Lords, has
been obtained by the importunity of the Colonial Interest, and will commence
its proceedings in a few days. The chief object of this inquiry appears to be,
to show that the recent Order in Council is injurious in its tendency; although
that Order professes to do little more than to give to the slaves the more effective
protection of law ; to put down the whip in the field ; to forbid the flogging of
women ; to legalise and facilitate marriage; to prevent the separation of families;;
to secure to the slaves their property ; to admit their testimony ; to facilitate ma-
numission ; to insure adequate food and clothing; and to prevent the undue ex-
action of labour.

* The .Jamaica Courant.

136 Anti-Slavery Record. — General Meeting.

And will it be enduied by the British people, now generally awakening to a
full conviction of the miserable impolicy as well as the awful national guilt of
longer upholding the system of colonial slavery, that even its proposed mitiga-
tion shall be indefinitely postponed, and the claim for its abolition virtually
abandoned ! And for what ? To enable tlie "West India planters to persist in
their insane career, till this system of iniquity shall be broken up with a crash
which must involve their own destruction ; until it be too late, in short, for
legislative wisdom to interfere, and slavery be extinguished not by the decree
of a repentant nation, but by the judgments of an offended God.

IV. Mr. Buxton's Motion in the House of Commons.

The discussion of Mr. Buxton's motion in the House of Commons, for the
speedy and total extinction of slavery in the British colonies, has been finally
fixed for the 24th of May. It is confidently expected that all sincere friends of
that object throughout the kingdom, will unite in strongly urging upon their
representatives in Parliament the duty of strenuously supporting Mr. Buxton in
the important debate anticipated at this eventful crisis of the Question.

V. The Anti-Slavery Record.

The Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, in compliance with the often ex-
pressed wishes of numerous respected correspondents, have commenced a new
and cheap periodical publication, adapted for general circulation. We subjoin
the following introductory notice from the first number, which is to be issued on
the first of May, and recommend the work to the cordial support of the friends of
our cause.

" The Anti -Slavery Record is issued at the request of many zealous friends of
Negro Emancipation throughout the country, and is intended to meet the
increasing demand for fresh information on every topic connected with this
great question. Its purpose is not to supersede, in any respect, other more im-
portant publications of the Anti-Slavery Society, but to act as a useful auxiliary,
by supplying, at the cheapest possible rate, intelligence adapted for popular cir-
culation, on a variety of points to which the Society's Reporter cannot always
conveniently advert.

" The Record will appear on the first day of every month, should
public encouragement warrant it. The price will be One Penny ; each num-
ber consisting of 12 pages duodecimo. The topics will, of course, vary
with the current of events ; but an abstract, more or less extended, according
to circumstances, will be regularly given of the Reporters, and of other
Anti-Slavery publications, as they issue from the press — for the information
of svich readers as, either from necessity or choice, direct their attention more to
matters of fact than to the argumentative discussions arising in the progress of
the controversy. In a word, the special business of the Anti-Slavery Record will
be to collect and communicate authentic intelligence ; while, as its title imports,
it will at the same time be a general register of all interesting information con-
nected with the cause of Negro Emancipation."

VI. General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society.

A General Meeting of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the
British Dominions, and of the Friends of that Cause, will he held at Exeter Hall,
Strand, on Saturday the Twelfth of May, 1832. The doors will be opened at
eleven o'clock, and the chair taken at twelve precisely.

Tickets of admission may be had on application after the 28th of April, at the
Society's Office, 18, Aldermanbury ; at Messrs. Hatchard and Son's, 187, Picca-
dilly; Mr. Nisbet's, 21, Berners Street; Messrs. Seeley's, Fleet Street; and
Messrs. Arch's, 61, Cornhill.

London : Samuel Bagster, Jun. Printer, 14, Bartliolomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 96.] MAY, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 5.

I. PROCEEDINGS OF A GENERAL MEETING OF THE ANTI-
SLAVERY SOCIETY AND ITS FRIENDS, HELD AT EXETER-
HALL, ON SATURDAY, THE 12tii OF MAY, 1832, JAMES STE-
PHEN, ESQ., IN THE CHAIR.
II. DEBATE ON MR. BUXTON'S MOTION IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.

i. — Proceedings of a General Meeting of the Anti-Slavery
Society and its friends, held at Exeter-Hall, on Saturday,
the 12th of May, 1832.

This meeting, in point of respectability, number, and ardour in the
cause, was calculated to afford the highest gratification to the friends
of humanity. Notwithstanding the absorbing interest of contemporary
occurrences in the political world, which deprived the Society of the
personal presence and support of some of its most distinguished mem-
bers, we have on no former occasion witnessed so much eagerness
among the intelligent classes of society to be present at the dis-
cussion of the cause of the Negro. In consequence of this eager-
ness, the passages leading to the place of meeting were thronged at
an early hour, and it was found requisite to open the doors long be-
fore the time announced in the advertisement. The capacious hall,
calculated, v/e believe, to contain not fewer than three thousand per-
sons, was crowded to overflowing in every part ; and many hundreds
went away without being able to obtain entrance. Among those
present on the platform we observed Lord Suffield, the Hon.
and Rev. Baptist Noel, Hon. G. J. Vernon, M. P., Dr. Lushington,
M. P., Messrs. James Stephen, William Smith, T. F. Buxton, M. P.,
Z. Macaulay, W. Whitmore, M. P., Daniel O'Connell, M. P., P. C.
Crampton, M. P., Solicitor-General for Ireland, W. Evans, M. P.,
J. Wilks,M.P., J.W. Pendarvis, M.P.,A. Johnstone, M.P., J.Bennett
M. P., Rev. J. W. Cunningham, Rev. John Burnett, Rev. Joseph Ivi-
mey. Rev. Dr. Cox, Rev. Dr. Bennett, Rev. Mr. James of Birmino--
ham, Messrs. Samuel Hoare, W. Allen, J. and R. Forster, W. A. Gar-
ratt, G. Stephen, H. Pownall, and many other persons distinguished by
their long services or their ardent zeal in the cause of Christian hu-
manity.

Lord Suffield having moved " that the old and tried friend of
negro emancipation, James Stephen, Esq., be requested to take the
Chair," that gentleman was called by acclamation to preside, and,
after a few introductory words from Mr. Buxton, —

Mr. STEPHEN rose and briefly addressed the meeting. It was
not, he said, an unnecessary introduction with which he had been
favoured by his friend ; for, however singular it might appear, it had
unfortunately happened that of late he had not attended any of the

Vol. V. T

138 General Meetincj — Lord Suffield.

Annual Meetings of the Anti-Slavery Society, nor indeed had taken any
public or prominent share in its proceedings for the last four or five
years. Itw^as, therefore, reasonable to conclude that to many persons,
in the large assembly in which he had the honour of presiding, he
might be personally unknown. Those, however, who were in posses-
sion of his sentiments would, he was persuaded, do him the justice of
believing that his absence from the scene of their deliberations was
not attributable to a want of inclination — to an abatement of zeal —
but to an overwhelming necessity, which barred the indulgence of
his wishes. The truth was, that the infirmities of increasing years
had unfitted him for taking an active part in the proceedings of
a public meeting ; and he had abstained from attending, lest, sitting
as a silent spectator, he might cast a damp upon the exertions of
others. If he now consented to occupy the chair, it was from a con-
viction that, in such a meeting, his labours must be light, and because
if they proved too heavy for him he had the kind promise of his noble
friend, Lord Suffield, that he would act in his place and allow him to
retire. He had made this explanation, as some of his friends might
have deemed him inconsistent. On this occasion he had certainly
departed from his general rule ; but it was an occasion of extreme
urgency, and he could not refuse to come forward, probably for the
last time in his life, at a period when it was imperative on every faith-
ful friend of the slave to lend his cause all the countenance he could.
(Applause.)

Lord SUFFIELD rose to propose the first of a series of resolutions,
to be submitted to the meeting. His Lordship was happy to congra-
tulate the friends of the cause upon the number and respectability of
the assembly by which he was surrounded ; but mingled with his
congratulations must be the expression of sonae surprise and of great
regret. His surprise was not awakened by the cheering sight of so
large an audience : for last year also the Hall was crowded, and sure
he was that crowded it would be if it were twice as spacious ; that was
not the cause of his surprise, still less of his regret ; but his surprise
and regret were excited by the fact that at this period — that in
the nineteenth century — in the year 1832 — that in a land of liberty—
in England, a country proverbial for its love of freedom — they should
be assembled — to do what? — why, to debate upon the existence of
slavery among British subjects ! (Hear.) He was persuaded that the
meeting would sympathise with him in expressing his surprise and
regret at the nature of the question which had called them together.
What, he demanded to know, was the subject they were now to dis-
cuss ? Was it a topic on which any human being in any corner of this
vast empire could entertain or dare to avow a difierence of opinion ?
(Hear.) Would not one and all say they were averse to slavery,
and ardent for the liberty of 800,000 of their fellow-subjects, at a
moment when Britons were struggling for what they conceived to be
their inalienable rights ? (Great Applause.) Warmly as he was known
to feel on this subject — strongly as he had declared himself to be in
every way] a determined reformer (renewed applause) — resolute as
he was in retaining that course of public life on which it was unneces-

General Meeting — Lord Sujfieid. 139

sary for him further to expatiate — still he should reserve his observ^a-
tions on these points to a more fitting opportunity, and keep to the
object immediately before them. He begged not to be misunder-
stood. It was not his design to introduce any political theme — and,
if he had adverted to events then in progress, it was only incidental
to his mention of the word liberty. Britons were, he repeated, strug-
gling to recover what they conceived to be their just rights ; — on the
nature of those rights he would forbear to enter ; — but Avere they, he
would ask, struggling for the redress of personal injuries — such redress
as was contended for on behalf of their fellow subjects in the West
Indies ? Whence arose the necessity of all this ceremony ? Whence
the necessity of this meeting with its Committee, and Chairman, and
Secretary, convened formally to express the detestation with which
the British public regarded slavery ? He was bound to admit — and
herein lay the cause of his regret — that there existed among a certain
portion of the community (a portion not confined to the much calum-
niated and contemned lower classes of society) an apathy on the sub-
ject of slavery which filled him with astonishment, and which could
only be accounted for by supposing them ignorant of the question.
Now, it was the object of the Anti-Siavery Society, by holding public
meetings, by distributing tracts, and by every other practicable method,
to inform people who would read (and he suspected that the love
of reading was now more general among the lower than the higher
classes) not only of what slavery actually was, but of what it must
necessarily be so long as it was suffered to exist. Hence the use of
the Anti-Slavery Society, and the importance of its efforts in dispell-
ing the clouds of darkness which veiled the deformities of the system
against which it pronounced judgment.

It was impossible for any person, hov/ever superficial might have
been the view he had taken, not to contemplate with horror the atro-
cious cruelties inflicted on the unhappy slaves in the West Indies.
He did not wish to excite their feelings by a recital of those unhal-
lowed acts, or by a reference to their details. He touched upon them
merely for the purpose of introducing that which he considered of
consequence to their case ; namely, the way in which the statement
of these cruelties was met by the colonists. He hardly recollected
one occasion on which he had made a statement of the kind that
he had not been met by the reply, " These things are bad enough ;
but are there not cruelties in England as well as in the West Indies ?
Are there not cruelties in every country under the sun ?" For the
sake of the argument he would admit the truth of the replication ;
he would concede the position, that cruelties were unfortunately com-
mitted here and elsewhere — though he was not prepared to believe
that our domestic misdeeds equalled in atrocity those perpetrated in
the West Indies. But then (and he would press this point upon the
attention of his audience) what v/as the popular feeling in regard to the
perpetrators of such deeds in England and in the West Indies respec-
tively ? In the one country a case of cruelty excited the greatest indig-
nation, and exposed the perpetrator to the vengeance of the public ; in
the other, the culprit was shielded knd protected, and sometimes pub-

140 General Mectituj — Lord Sujffickl.

licly rewarded. His Lordship, in corroboration of this statement, re-
ferred to the case of Mrs. Brownrigg-, who was accused in England of
starving her apprentices ; and to the case of the Mosses, in the
Bahamas, who had been found guilty of committing the most horrid
and revolting cruelties upon one of their female slaves. In*the former
case, it was with difficulty that the delinquent was saved from the fm-y
of the populace ; in the latter the most respectable inhabitants of the
island petitioned the government to remit the sentence of a fine of
£300 and six months' imprisonment ; and, not succeeding in their
petition, they recompenced the parties by a grand dinner to celebrate
the occasion of their coming out of prison ! It was thus that cruelty
to the slave was looked upon by the " respectable" inhabitants of
the Bahamas ! and these occurrences took place not at a distant
date — not at a time when attention was little directed to the condi-
tion of the Negro — but in the year 1829, when the colonists professed
their readiness to soften the hardships of their bondmen. This ex-
ample (and it was only one out of innumerable instances) showed
that, not only were acts of inhuman atrocity committed in the West
Indies, but that the slaves in these colonies were peculiarly liable to
their infliction, from the indifference with which such offences are
regarded, even when a conviction (and that was a matter of extreme
difficulty) could be obtained. It had been stated by the advocates of
the planters that the cases of atrocity were rare. He would admit
that the number of cases which came to the knowledge of the public
were compartively few, and thus far they might be pronounced rare ;
but how could it be otherwise, when almost the only means of in-
formation were derived from parties universally interested in the con-
cealment of the facts ? (Hear, hear.)

His Lordship then adverted to the general question of slavery, and
remarked that it embraced a great number of points, many of which
lie must pass by, both for the sake of time, and on account of other
gentlemen prepared to speak upon them. He had a memorandum of
ten points upon which he would have liked to dwell : — 1. The general
neglect of the moral, intellectual, and religious instruction of the
slaves. 2. The profanation of the Sabbath, as a day of rest, ordained
by a beneficent Providence for relaxation from labour as well as for
spiritual improvement. 3. The licentious and indecent treatment of
females. 4. The excess and barbarity of punishment to which the
slaves are subjected. 5. The discouragement of marriage. 6. The
shameful neglect or perversion of the laws intended to restrain cruelties.
7. The hardship of the present leiw, which enables the colonists to
separate families, or the nearest kindred, by sale. 8. The incom-
petency of slave evidence, which makes it almost impossible to secure
the conviction of the perpetrators of acts of cruelty. 9. The extreme
difficulty thrown in the way of a slave recovering his freedom by pur-
chase. 10. The uncertainty in which he held his liberty, even if it
was procured. — These points, his Lordship remarked, he must leave
to be handled by other speakers, whose line of argument he would
not preoccupy. He would confine himself to a few observations upon
two others ; namely, the excess of labour to which the slaves are suh-

General Meeting — Lord Suffield. 141

jected, and the insuiBciency of their maintenance. With regard to
the first point, it might be asked, what good proof had he of the
slaves being overworked 1 He had proof at once irrefragable and
horrifying, in an entire reversion of the order of nature, a decrease,
a large decrease, in the slave population, as furnished by the parlia-
mentary returns, out of the mouths of the planters themselves. The
official returns, on which he founded his statement, it must be observed,
were confined to the sugar colonies, and specially related to the field
Negroes in those colonies ; that is, to those slaves who are subject to
that symbol of office, as the colonists call it, — the cart whip. This
circumstance merited attention, as showing that the decrease was not
in the slave population generally, but in that part of it subjected to
excessive labour under the stimulus of the cart-whip. The following
was stated by his Lordship to be a summary of the parliamentary re-
turns, showing the amount of decrease in the population of field
Negroes : — In Antigua, the decrease in 11 years was 868 — in Berbice,
in 9 years, 1844 — in Demerara, in 12 years, 13,367 — in Grenada, in

12 years, 2,597 — in Jamaica (and this was the island where a naval
officer said he found the Negroes so happy that he almost wished
he had been born a slave !) — in Jamaica, the decrease was, in 12 years,
19,163 — in Montserrat, in 11 years, 131 — in Nevis, in 1 1 years,
192 — in St. Christopher's, in 10 years, 69 — in St. Lucia, in 13 years,
1942— in St. Vincent's, in 10 years, 1248 — in Tobago, in 10 years,
2803 — in Tortola, in 10 years, 143 — in Trinidad, in 13 years, 6068.
The decrease in these 13 colonies, therefore, on an average of 11 years
and a half, was 50,435. (Hear I hear! ) In the Mauritius, the decrease
in 10 years and three quarters was 10,767. These facts were indis-
putable, and what reply could be made to them ? Why, the planters
attempted to meet the case, by alleging that the decrease arose out
of the inequality in the number of the sexes. This, however, must
xitterly fail : for the respective numbers of males and females in these

13 colonies were as follows — males 381,191, females 374,110. (Hear!
hear ! )

He might also take a particular case. On the estates of Fahie and
Orton, in St. Christopher's, there were 140 slaves, and the proportion
of women to men was exactly that most likely to increase the popula-
tion. But what was the fact, in the course of 12 years — that is, from
1812 to 1824, at whicli time the estate passed into new hands, and a
census was taken? Why, out of 140 slaves, only 60 remained alive ;
and, of these sixty, 3 out of 20 were recruits by purchase, who had
also perished.

There was another remarkable case in the island of Trinidad. A
number of slaves, who had escaped from the United States, landed
in that island between the years 1815 and 1821, where they were put
under restraint, and made to work, but without being subjected to the
whip. And what was the consequence ? In nine years the increase
was 147, the original number being 774. At the same time, in this
same colony, the decrease among the slaves subjected to the whip was
at the rate of 21 per cent.

This then, said his Lordship, was the irrefragable proof to which he
had referred. Here was a waste of life by slow torture. Slaves half

142 General Meeting — Lord Suffield.

fed were worked beyond their strength, till exhausted nature sunk
under a weight of cruelty and oppression unparalleled in the history
of the world. If this were not so, why was the decrease confined to
sugar colonies, and in them to field Negroes who were subjected to the
whip ? But, perhaps, it might be desirable to show a little more in
detail how the system operates. What amount of labour is required,
and what is the amount of maintenance to support such exertion ? It
was presumed by the Colonist that the Negro is an indolent animal,
and that he, like most other natives of hot climates, is disinclined
to labour. This might be true ; but surely it was no less true that man,
like all other animals (but man, perhaps, in a superior degree), has
instinctive feelings, from which he learns to seek that which is salutary,
and to avoid that which is injurious ; nature warns him, by the aching
of his limbs, to seek timely repose ; and as, in the hottest climates,
great exertion is attended with the most danger, so are the natives of
such climates more especially warned against a degree of labour
amounting to excess. But these warnings of nature do not suit the
interest — the short-sighted policy of the planter. The aching of the
limbs, painful as it is, must be overcome by some powerful incentive
to noxious exertion, or salutary repose (as requisite to life as food)
would ensue. Then the cart-whip was resorted to : the happy expedient
of the planter. The aching of the limbs, the stiffness of the joints,
were to be overpowered by less endurable pain. That v/hich a man
will not do for wages, or any other earthly inducement, he was found,
by experiment, to do to escape torture. How many hours are the slaves,
was it supposed, compelled to work in the twenty-four ? No less than
sixteen ; that is, fifteen and a half hours, by the Colonist's own ac-
count, for seven months in the year ; and eighteen hours during the
remaining five months, being crop time, making an average of sixteen
hours throughout the year.

He would just allude to an assertion, to which it appeared to
him almost incredible that any countenance should be given by the
persons of high rank who, he lamented to say, promulgated it :
namely, that the condition of the British peasant was inferior to that
of the slave in the West Indies. Let them institute a comparison to
test the character of this monstrous assertion. The slave was em-
ployed for sixteen hours a-day in a bui-ning climate, and constantly
goaded to the maximum of exertion by the application of the cart-whip.
The English labourer selected his employment, and was always at
liberty to pause when he pleased. The slaves worked in " gangs :"
they were arranged in rows, they were all obliged to work with equal
vigour, and none was permitted to wait for his fellow ; and if any
dared to stop (even a delicate woman, who might be placed side by
side with a robust man, with a view to equal labour,) the lash of the
cart-whip was instantly used to quicken reluctant nature. This was
the character of the slave labour and its stimulus. What comparison
then could be instituted between the condition of the English peasant
and that of the trampled and fettered African ?

He remembered a case that occurred in Berbice, as detailed in the
official report of the Protector of slaves. Four females complained of

General Meeting — Mr. Buxton. 143

the grievance of being overworked ; and on just grounds — for they
were allowed but three hours in thirty-six for the enjoyment of rest.
They were obliged to work by night as well as day. 'What was the
issue of their complaint ? Did they obtain a remission of labour ?
Yes ; but it was only to suffer confinement in the stocks during
four days and nights. Such was one of many atrocities which he could
enumerate on the evidence of undisputed and indisputable documents.
The noble Lord proceeded briefly to advert to the insufficient main-
tenance allotted to the slave, which he held to be, in a considerable mea-
sure, attributable to the conflicting interests of the proprietors and the
managers of colonial estates — it being the proprietor's interest to
secure the longevity of the slaves, and the manager's interest to force
the largest amount of produce in order to increase the amount of
his commission. His Lordship, after expressing his sense of the inex-
pediency of making any further observations when there was a num-
ber of gentlemen waiting to address the assembly, said that he would
conclude by declaring, in the words of a high authority, that " such
were the evils of slavery that they admitted but of one means of
mitigation — to limit the time of their duration ; and such the efi'ects of
slavery that they admitted but of one cure — total abolition." (Great
Applause.) His Lordship then proposed' the following resolution : —
" That the almost universal voice of the British nation, raised
in upwards of 6000 Petitions to Parliament, has pronounced the
slavery in which 800,000 of their fellow-subjects are held to
be wholly repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, to the claims of
humanity and justice, and to the principles of the British Constitution;
and that nine long years have elapsed since Parliament, concurring in
this sentiment, unanimously resolved to put an early period to the
guilt and crime of slavery, by restoring its victims to their just rights
as British subjects ; but that hitherto little has been done to effect
that object."

Mr. BUXTON rose to second the resolution. He felt con-
siderable distress, he said, at being called forward at that parti-
cular moment, and should have been glad if his noble friend had not
been restrained by an over-scrupulous sense of delicacy from ex-
tending that address which contained so many important facts. The
Society and its supporters were under great obligations to the
noble Lord ; for it might be that they would have but few friends so
firm in the momentous hour that was approaching — a period most
important to the interests of the Negro slave.— He must confess that
he had been almost alarmed at the commencement of the noble
Lord's address, in which he glanced at events then passing in the
political world ; and regretted lest that great meeting should become
absorbed in the consideration of rights slight and insignificant, com-
pared with those vital and primary rights which it was their un-
ceasing object to restore — (cries of " No, no," mingled luith marks
of approbation, ) He must be permitted to repeat, — and no man had
a deeper impression of the value of those rights which Englishmen
were struggling to obtain — that, however important were the political
privileges in question, still they were comparatively insignificant when

144 General Meeting — Mr. Buxton.

weighed in the scale with those that had been wrested from the slaves
— (cries of " No," and applmise.) He would not obtrude remarks
that were foreign to the occasion ; but he entreated those who heard
him only to consider what they were seeking for the Negro. What
they Avere seeking for him was not the future possession of a para-
mount interest like that of which their fellow subjects had been de-
prived, but it was to secure for him the common claim of the whole
human race — the mastery of his very life and limbs. — But he would
cry a truce to politics, and proceed to the subject that had called
them together.

He must acknowledge that it was with feelings of concern and
disappointment that he at present addressed them. When before
them last year he indulged the hope that the period was not
distant when he should be able to congratulate the opponents of
slavery, if not upon its extinction, at least upon an act passed for its
extinction. He hoped that its death-warrant would soon have been
signed, and that this powerful nation would have shown itself awake
to what was due to justice, common honesty, and a Christian pro-
fession, and have renounced and repented of that crime of crimes,
the permission of Negro slavery. (Applause.) No such tidings,
however, had he to communicate ; but in their stead he had to report
one of the most extraordinary events within the range of his recol-
lection : they had asked for the extinction of slavery, and they had
got a Committee of the House of Lords ! (Hear, hear.) Now what
did they want with a Committee of the House of Lords ? Was it to
solve their doubts as to the excellence or the evil of slavery ? Was
there any man so stupid as to dare to tell them that they wanted a
Committee of the Lords to announce that slavery was in very truth,
and in reality, a crime ? (Ajjplause.) Were they to be informed by
the advice, counsel, and wisdom of that body, that slavery was a
blessing in the West Indies, but a curse in every other portion of the
globe ? Did the British public, at this day, require to be informed as
to the fact that slavery hardens and corrupts the heart of him who
is the unfortunate agent in its infliction, and makes him in mind and
body a slave ? — facts notorious to every person in these realms, always
excepting the Committee of the House of Lords ! (Hear, hear.)
Were that Committee called upon to consider whether the Negro be a
man, or an inferior animal, there would be some sense in their ap-
pointment : by determining this point, they would have gone a good
way to settle the question at issue. If it were once established that
the Negro was not a man, then they would have no right to object to
his being treated as a marketable commodity. But if, on the other
hand, he were held to be a man, then assuredly they were not war-
ranted in treating him as a beast. (Applause.) If the Committee
had been appointed to enquire whether the European 'or the West
Indian application of the doctrine, " Do unto all men as you would
that men should do unto you," were the correct one, he should have
been glad, because its profound investigations might have discovered
that they had all been in error, and that the true interpretation was,
*' Do unto all men, except blacks, as you would that men should do

General Meeting— Mr. Buxton. 145

unto you ; but, with regard to the blacks, do with them what you
please." (Applause.) Had it indeed been a Committee acknowledg-
ing that slavery was a crime, in the sight of God and of man, and
enquiring how they might get rid of it in the best, safest, and speediest
manner, he should have acquiesced in the propriety of its appoint-
ment ; but a Committee assembled to enquire whether it was decent
to flog females — whether it was merciful to sever the ties of kindred,
to tear the wife from the husband and the child from the parent —
whether it was equitable to submit our fellow-creatures to the torture
of the cart-whip — whether it accorded with the principles of religion
to turn the Sabbath into a, market-day — and whether it Vv'as consistent
with nice morality to despoil a man of his liberty, and burthen his
limbs with grinding bonds — these assuredly were the last questions on
which he should deem it necessary to advise with their Lordships.
(Ajyplause.) He woidd not stop to enter into an examination of the
composition of that Committee. He had indeed been told that a
great proportion of its members had a direct interest in the question
of slavery ; and he would put it to the world whether, if one party
in a suit were a powerful English noble and the other a poor Negro
slave, the issue would be doubtful ; was it righteous, was it just, was
it decent, that the West-Indian planter should sit in judgment on
West-Indian Slavery ? (Hear.) He would not anticipate the verdict
which that Committee was likely to pronounce, but he should be sorely
disappointed if it failed to be a panegyric upon slavery. (Laughter
and applause.) If there were not among the witnesses that would
be brought forward some who had seen slavery in all its blessedness,
and wished to participate in its joys, he should, he repeated, be disap-
pointed if the verdict did not prove consonant to the views of a noble
Lord, who once designated the West Indies as a paradise to the Negro
slaves. He would abstain from dwelling farther on this point : he
hoped that this intelligent meeting perceived the object of the Com-
mittee : he hoped they did not misunderstand the motives that had
led to its formation : it was hardly possible to misinterpret the shouts
of triumph with v/hich the appointment of it was hailed by the West
India body, or to conceive that it was not like the similar pro-
ceedings of that body at a former period — a pretext for delay, and
nothing else. (Applause.)

Looking on the formation of this Committee as a calamity to their
cause, but feeling assured that he was surrounded by those who also
looked upon it as a calamity to their cause, and who, mourners in
heart, regarded the measure as the last stroke to the Negro's defeated
and expiring hopes, — with the sentiments that he entertained, under a
sense of bitter disappointment, — there was a matter of practical
business which he wished to bring before the assembly. Were they,
he demanded to know, all of one mind ? were they, in one word, for
emancipation ? — for total emancipation ? {Great applause) — for eman-
cipation with as little delay as honest necessity would allow ? (Re-
newed apjplause.) These were his doctrines, and he wanted to as-
certain whether or not they were theirs. (Loud and unanimous
tokens of approval.) He had been driven into this declaration — he

u

146 General Meeting---Mr. Buxton.

had not always thus expressed himself; but seeing what was passing,
and what had passed, he was compelled to embrace the conclusion
that emancipation, total and early emancipation, was now the only
battle they ought to fight. (Great applause.) There were persons
among them, to whom he gave every credit for honest intentions, who
were for the mitigation of slavery. (Cries of " No, no.") Yes, there
were, he begged to say, such persons among them, but he wished to
have that question settled. (Hear.)

Let him not be misunderstood ; he was not disposed to go along
with some of their friends, who desired to move farther and faster
than prudence could sanction. He alluded to the placards which
had recently been affixed to the walls of the metropolis. These were
not the work of the Anti-Slavery Society ; he said it with the utmost
respect for the good and brave men with whom they originated ; but it
was important that it should be known that they were not put forth
by the Anti-Slavery Society.

Yet, while making this disclaimer, he would add that he did not
belong to that party who advocated the adoption of mitigating mea-
sures ; though at the same time he did not object to mitigation, in
whole, or in part. He was glad to observe, in the returns of slave
punishments from Demerara, that there had been a decrease of 40,000
stripes iii a single year; and, if they could but save one wretch on the
brink of suffering, he should not think that their exertions had been
thrown away. But situated as they were, with their friends so feeble
in parliament, and their enemies so powerful in parliament, he felt
bound to speak out, and to declare that he would not seek that one
wretch should be delivered, but that the system — he could not help
calling it the accursed system ! (Hear) — the system which destroyed
annually so many thousands — that this system should be abolished
(applause), and that the victims of British cupidity should be restored,
not to any peculiarity of privilege, but to those natural rights which
God in his mercy had given, and which man in his wickedness had
taken away. (Applause.) Now would mitigation do this ? ( Cries of
" No, no." ) He really wished this question to be soberly considered
amongthemselves, asithad been byhim. Wouldmitigation do? ("No,
no." ) What had they been about for the last thirty or forty years ?—
Lords, Commons, and People of England 1 Why, mitigating slavery.
And how had they succeeded? what had they achieved ? (A voice ex-
claimed, " Nothing.") He would not take that answer, but he would
apply to those veteran champions of their cause then amongthem, to tell
what slavery was in former times, and what it was at present. There
was Mr. William Smith (applause), who delivered speeches against
slavery before he (Mr. Buxton) was born ; there was their friend the
Chairman, who was fighting their battles at the same time (applause) ;
and there was Mr. Macaulay, than whom no man livinghad rendered, or
could render, their cause more essential service. (Ajoplause.) Hewould
ask these veteran champions, What were the complaints made by Wil-
berforce, and Pitt, and Fox, at an earlier day? did not they complain
of the torturing cart-whip-— of the breaking-up of families— of the
profanation of the Sabbath— of the absence of religious instruction

General Meeting--- Mr. Buxton. 147

— and of the buying and selling of our fellow-creatures ? These were
the complaints of the advocates of humanity forty years ago ; and
what were they now ? Precisely the same— not one of all the grievous
catalogue had been obliterated. (Hear.)

Nine years ago they witnessed the commencement of a new era. —
A resolution on the subject of slavery was brought forward in the
House of Commons, to which Mr. Canning proposed an amendment,
pledging the legislature to the immediate mitigation and eventual ex-
tinction of slavery. Not only did he do this, but he traced the course
that was to be pursued in order to accomplish the object of his
amendment. He first directed his attention to the difference of sex, and
recommended that they should abstain from the unseemly and dis-
gusting practice of flogging females. " This," said Mr. Canning,
" is the first step, without which you cannot proceed farther." A
West Indian (Mr. Ellis) declared that this was a change which all
would concede without hesitation. Well, the nation applauded —
Parliament approved; but had the obvious, the unobjectionable change
yet been effected ? (Hear.) Why, not above six months had
elapsed since that very question of flogging females came before the
House of Assembly of Jamaica, when there was but one vote for and
all the rest against the discontinuance of the practice ! (Hear.)

Then as to religious instruction. Mr. Wilberforce, in 1797, moved for
the abolition of the slave-trade, and Mr. Ellis said "No — we can't afford
that — it would be a piece of roguery (laughter) ; but we'll do some-
thing better — we'll strike at the root^of the system and make all the
Negroes Christians." (Hear.) A resolution was consequently adopted,
decisive of a measure for affording to the Negro the blessings of moral
and religious instruction. This resolution produced the effect it was
doubtless intended to produce, namely, it lulled the people asleep for
another ten years, which was, he supposed, the end contemplated by
the Committee of their important and dignified friends the Lords ; but,
as to its making the Negroes Christians, they would appreciate its
eflficiency by the fact that Mr. Ellis, who moved the resolution in
1797, this same gentleman (now Lord Seaford) said in a place which
he must not name, on the 17th of April, 1832, that, prior to the
year 1823, there was not one Christian Negro in the West Indies^
but, continued he, " a great change has occurred since that period,
and they are all Christians now." (Hear.) Now, if he (Mr.
Buxton) could entertain such a belief — if he could leave this meeting
with a sense of the truth of this statement, he should feel a degree of
exultation, at that moment very foreign to his heart. Something of
importance they had done, but he would disdain to assume the credit
of doing what had not been done at all. What ! were the Negroes all —
all Christians ? Let them inspect the symptoms. Shortly after the
passing of Mr. Canning's resolutions came the tidings of the murder
of the missionary Smith. Close upon this event followed the destruc-
tion of the chapels in Barbadoes. Then came the Toleration Act of
Jamaica in 1826, which was applauded to the skies by the West In-
dians, as indicating the excess of liberality, but which, when it ar=-

148 General Meeting— Mr. Buxton.

rived in England, was, notwithstanding, rejected by three successive
governments, because, to borrow the language of Mr. Huskisson, " it
was the violation of that toleration which was the right of every
English subject." (Applause.) Then came the persecution — the
trial, conviction, and punishment of Christian Negroes for the crime of
worshipping their God. (Hear.) He could scarcely expect that per-
sons unacquainted with the evidence could lend credit to an account
of these excesses, but he would stake his character on the accuracy
of the fact that Negroes had been scourged — ay, scourged to the very
borders of the grave — uncharged with the imputation of any crime
save that of worshipping their God ! (Hear, hear.) To these enor-
mities succeeded the persecution of the shepherds of the flock. The
rehgious public of England had sent these men forward, and the re-
ligious public must fight their battles in this country. Either with-
draw your missionaries directly, or insist that justice shall be done to
them! (Enthusiastic applause.) There could be no tampering
with the question any longer. (Hear.) The missionaries had borne
to the utmost pitch of endurance ; and were he of this number he
would relinquish his post if the whole religious public of England did
not express their sentiments- —he would not say with violence — but
with a strength of determination that should produce the effect of
bringing them justice. (Applause.) But where were the missionaries
that had been sent to the West Indies? In jail !— he hoped they were
in jail, for he dreaded lest they had been already sacrificed to the fury
of those in whose eyes the most capital crime was the attempt to put
an end to religious thraldom. (Hear.) Where were the slaves —
their converts 1 Drenched in their own blood. Where were the
chapels in which they ministered ? Levelled to the earth or consumed
by fire. Where were the colonial magistrates ? (Hear.) Were they
present at these scenes? were they active ? Yes, active they were — in
aiding the conflagration ! {Hear.) And was there no semblance of
aid in Jamaica for these injured persons.'' They had the " Church
Union Society" (a laugh) organized for two distinct objects — ^the de-
molition of places of worship~-and the banishment or murder of the
missionaries ! (Hear.) As to the Jamaica Free Press— hut he would
not insult the dignity of the meeting by adverting to its language— he
would merely say that there had not been in our day such persecu-
tion as these wise and good men, who pursued their sacred vocation in
the West India Colonies, had been constrained to endure. Let them
bear in mind that it was one thing to fight with numbers — with the
multiplied assurances of victory — on their side, and another and a
greater thing to stand alone, and stem the torrent of wickedness and
cruelty, which, whereverit predominated, created misery and desolation.
He would say that hereafter they must make selections among these
missionaries. Was there a man whose timid or tender spirit was un-
equal to the storm of persecution ? Let them send him to the savage-
let them expose him to the cannibal— let them save his life by direct-
ing his steps towards the rude haunts of the barbarian. But if there
were a man of a stiffer, sterner nature-— a man willing to encounter

Geueixil Meetinf/—-Mr. Buxtoit. 149

obloquy, torture, and cleath~-him let them reserve for the tender
mercies of their Christian brethren and fellow countrymen— -the plant-
ers of Jamaica. (Applause.)

He had, perhaps, dwelt longer than he ought to have done on the
subject of religious instruction; but he had protracted his remarks
because he was invariably met by the argument, " Surely you would
not emancipate these people ! — wait till they are prepared for freedom
by the gentle influence of Christianity." He would have waited if
he had been allowed to wait ; but what said the people of Jamaica to
" the gentle influence of Christianity ?" They did not dread a torna-
do half so much. They announced plainly that their dungeons were
ready, their whips prepared, their scaffolds erected, and these should
preserve them from the contamination of a " church-going, psalm-
singing population." Their own language had set forth that " any
attempt to instil religious instruction into the minds of the Negroes
was incompatible with slavery." They saw that religious instruction
and slavery could not co-exist, and they naturally enough clung to
their system. But were we to be deluded by that ? Was Christian-
ity to be on this ground withheld from the poor Negroes ? To say
to them "You shall be free, but only when you cease to be Heathens,"
was the same as saying " You shall not be free at all" — it was, in fact,
equivalent to the announcement that they should be free when they
passed a certain barrier which they could not by possibility pass.
They might just as well promise them liberty on condition of making
their skin white. Could the Ethiopian change his skin, or the
leopard his spots ? It were quite as easy a task to accomplish either
of these changes as to win the consent of the Jamaica planters to
afford effective religious instrifction to the Negroes. (Applause.)

What did the whole state of affairs in Jamaica prove ? There, and
in the other West India colonies, the state of affairs demonstrated that
slavery was equally detestable for its physical cruelties as for its ran-
cour against religion. Only look to the mean position in which we
Christians stood with respect to the Negroes. What had we done
to those innocent people ? Doomed them to bondage. How had
they merited such treatment at our hands 1 They had given us no
provocation — they had been made the victims of crime, and we and.
our ancestors were the criminals. His noble friend who had just
addressed them had dwelt on the diminution of numbers. We had
mowed down these unfortunate beings — we had ground them under
the iron heel of oppression — and as the climax of our iniquity we had
not scrupled to shut them out from holiness and heaven, and had
barred their advances on that path of peace which an all-merciful
Providence had left wide open for people of every tongue and kindred,
Jew and Gentile, bond and free. (Applause.) Now, was that ran-
cour to Christianity necessary in the West Indies ? Yes, it was good
in a mercantile point of view to keep the Negroes as Heathens, iu
order that we might keep them as slaves. The planters did not object
to religion as religion (a laugh), but they were averse to it because
they were convinced that it and slavery could not go hand in hand.
They felt bound to take the utmost precautions against the inroads of

150 General Meeting— Rev. J . W. Cunningham.

divine truth, lest their imprudence might stir up an insurrection and
the Bible be found to turn traitor. Now, if slavery and Christianity
could not co-exist, it vpas incumbent on the people of England to
stand forth and choose their side— to select between the word of God
and the capricious cruelty of man. It was nonsense going on for
ever holding public meetings : it was their duty to demand with united
voice — whatever administration might chance to be in power — the
total abolition of slavery as the only way of accomplishing the moral,
religious, and intellectual improvement of the Negroes. (Applause.)
When he called to mind the fact adverted to by his noble friend (Lord
Suffield) that, contrary to the law of nature, in a country friendly to
the increase of population, it had diminished with such frightful rapidity,
he would tell all who countenanced such a system that they would
have to account at a solemn tribunal for the 50,000 murders that had
been committed through its agency. When he thought of this, and
of the cart-whip, and the millions of stripes inflicted by that accursed
instrument, he was at a loss for words to express his feelings. When
he traced the system through its baleful ramifications, when he con-
templated this black cluster of crimes, there was but one language,
the language of divine inspiration, that could convey what passed
within him. " They are a people robbed and spoiled ; they are all of
them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses ; they are for
a prey and no man delivereth, for a spoil and no man restoreth."
When they looked at the career of affliction of their brother man — for
after all he was their brother, moulded in the some form, heir to the
same immortality, and, though in chains and in suffering, on a level
in the eyes of God with the proudest noble in that Committee which had
been appointed to sit in judgment upon him (applause) — when he
viewed him entering life by the desert track of bondage — when he view-
ed him writhing under the lash of his tormentor — when he saw him con-
signed to a premature and unregarded grave, having died of slavery
— and when he thought of the preparation which we, good Christian
men and women, had enabled him to make for his hereafter, there
could be but one feeling in his heart, one expression on his lips. —
*' Great God ! how long, how long, is this iniquity to continue ?" — The
hon. gentleman sat down amidst loud and general acclamations.

The Chairman then put the resolution, which was carried unani-
mously.

The Rev. J. W. CUNNINGHAM then came forward ; and loud
cries were raised for the name of the speaker. This being duly an-
nounced— the Rev. gentleman began by stating it was no matter of
surprise to him that his name and countenance should be unknown
to many in that assembly. From the first moment in which he had
begun to judge for himself as an English clergyman, he had felt the
strongest indisposition to connect himself in any way with what he might
call the topics of diurnal politics. To do so was, in his judgment, to
descend from the high ground where divine providence had called
him to move and to act, and to dishonour his profession. And he
had found the constant effect of such a descent to be — not the pro-
duction of a religious politician, but of a political priest — not of a

General Meeting— Rev. J. W. Cunningham. 151

system of devout policy, but of worldly priestcraft — a system which
looked mainly to the honour and self-aggrandizement of the offender.
{Hear and applause.) But it by no means followed that, because a
minister of religion was not to lend himself to subjects of ephemeral
and party politics, the mere infusion of a certain quantity of political
feeling into a moral or religious question should prevent him from
giving his mind to that question. And he must say that the question
now before him was infinitely far from a question of mere politics.
It was, in the highest sense, a question of religion and morals. And
one of the main injuries which had been inflicted upon it was — that it
had not been sufficiently argued upon the wide basis of the gospel of
Christ. Every argument of his hon. friend, Mr. Buxton, had touched
some chord within him. But, when he passed from time to eternity,
and enquired into the manner in which we had dealt with the im-
mortal souls of the Negroes, the reasoning was irresistible ; and he
felt that a man acting on such principles must, in the end, subdue
all enemies before him. {Hear and applause.)

When he had agreed to take any pai't in the proceedings of the
day, he had taken time to consider to what party in that assembly he
could hope to be of any use — and he had come to the conclusion to
seek out, if it were possible to find him, any one man who was more
ignorant than himself on the subject of slavery, and address himself
to that single man — and to such he meant especially to speak.

The resolution he had to propose was in the following terms : —
"That it is the duty of the Government and Parliament of this country
to proceed without any farther delay to fulfil their pledge, and to
adopt forthwith the necessary measures for the total abolition of
slavery throughout the British dominions ; it being now unquestion-
able that it is only by the interposition of parliament any hope can be
entertained of peaceably terminating its unnumbered evils, or any
security afforded against the recurrence of those bloody and calami-
tous scenes which have recently afflicted Jamaica."

As he found that Dr. Lushington was to second this motion, who
was, perhaps, of all men the best qualified to enter into the details of
the question — and who would, perhaps, be so kind as to begin by tell-
ing us who were the " Government" referred to in the motion, and
where the " P arliajnent" referred to would be in a few days — {hear
and laughter) — he would not intrude upon subjects of which he was
comparatively so ignorant. This, however, he would say, that he had
little dependence, as to this work, on any Parliament. He was dis-
posed to look higher, and rest his confidence upon the God and Father
of all nations — and upon the accuracy of that immutable maxim —
" truth is great and must prevail."

In order, however, to account for his little reliance upon Parlia-
ment, and to give some instruction to that portion of his audience who
might not have had the privilege, if a gentleman, of roasting under
the gallery of the House of Commons, or, if a lady, of being smoke-
dried in its chimney, he would endeavour to give them a slight sketch
of what he saw and heard there on the occasion of the last motion
made by Mr. Buxton for the extinction of slavery. The very instant

152 General Meetmg—Rev. J. W, Cunningham.

his honourable friend got up, a great hubbub arose— not the
hubbub of gratitude and applause which had been heard to-day,
but a West Indian hubbub (laughter) — for, as Mr. Wilberforce
once said in Parliament on a similar occasion, " every animal has its
cry" (hear and laughter), and there is a West Indian cry, with which
Mr. Wilberforce was too familiar — and the object of that hubbub was,
at once, and by a summary process, to put down Mr. Buxton. He
did assure the meeting that, among the ten thousand reasons for send-
ing his honourable friend to parliament, there were two not to be for-
gotten, that he was at least six feet high, and had a voice like a lion ;
for a feebler man or a feebler voice was no match for the West Indian
legislators. (Hear and laughter.) After Mr. Buxton had spoken, a
gentleman arose, who began by a beautiful descant upon the blessings
of general liberty, and ended by an equally beautiful descant on the
evils of individual liberty {laughter) — general liberty, according
to this parliamentary orator, being the very best thing in the world,
and individual liberty the worst. Like the early French philanthro-
pist, whose benevolence was a circumference without a centre, em-
bracing the whole world in its arms, but not caring a rush for any
one man of whom it was composed. {Laughter.) Having gone
through this beautiful descant, and endeavoured, as far as in him lay,
to bind every existing evil upon the slaves, and to establish the fact of
their present happiness, by their privilege to dance and get drunk on
a Sunday, the honourable member finished, as he had began, by in-
sisting loudly on his own intense hatred to slavery, his own intense
attachment to the slaves, and his own burning desires for the promo-
tion of religion and morality. It was a singular fact, that, touch any
such advocate, at any one moment, in any one place, with the spear
of Ithuriel, he was sure to start up a West Indian proprietor or agent.
It was rare, indeed, to find a man who wa§ not one of these, or who
had not some private interest to secure, who was the parliamentary
advocate of West Indian slavery. {Hear.) After this gentleman
arose another, the possessor of £50,000 or 60,000 a year, and of
course therefore, by personal experience, a capital judge of the
trials of starving and naked men and women ; and, after paying
a high compliment to Mr. Buxton (not such a one as I find in a
Jamaica newspaper in my hand — " that double, treble, fool, ass, Bux-
ton, and his crew") but a real compliment to his heart, though at the ex-
pense of his head {laughter), calling him at once the most tender and
credulous of human beings — (how otherwise could Mr. Buxton have
given credit to the facts he had so often stated ?) He then adverted to
flogging ; but he much questioned whether the whip was ever used
for field labour. And, as for flogging women, that was quite impos-
sible. {Laughter.) What he wished was that a Committee, just such
a Committee by the bye as the Government had recently been per-
suaded to appoint, should be appointed to examine into these very
doubtful facts of the honourable member. And let it be remembered
that the object of that Committee was not, as his honourable friend
had stated, to enquire "whether flogging was a blessing;" who could
doubt that ? but '' whether any man, woman, or child, had ever been

r

General Meeiin^—Rev. J. W. Cunningham. 153

flogged?" After this gentleman arose a third, a cold-blooded lawyer-*-
he meant no reflections, as he need not look far to find lawyers, not
merely with clear heads, but warm hearty— who took upon himself to
prove that all the improvements suggested by the Order in Council
had been effected in the Colonies. And the manner in which he ac-
ccanplished it was somewhat ingenious— he showed, or rather asserted,
that, in one island, they had abolished flogging females ; in another, the
Sunday market; in another, had admitted slave evidence or encouraged
marriage ; and, by a figure of speech not unknown to rhetoricians of
a certain order, went on to infer, this being the case, that all the is-
lands had adopted all the improvements which had been suggested to
them. Such was the logic of the House of Commons — of the Parlia-
ment, on which they were to rely. {Laughter.)

But he was afraid of appearing to trifle with this question. He
would, therefore, now briefly advert to the notorious decision of the
planters of Trinidad — that Slavery and Christianity were incompatible I
Had they stopped short at the mere enunciation of this abstract
truth? Far from it — the premises were--— ^'Slavery and Christianity are
incompatible." But what was the conclusion ? " Therefore, get rid of
Christianity." He desired to speak reverently ; but, to his mind, that
decisionwas to be paralleled only bythat of the Jews — "saveBarabbas,"
and " crucify Christ." Nothing, as far as he could see, could be more
indefinable than the conduct of many of the leading authorities of
Jamaica in the late insurrection. Magistrates had headed the parties
to destroy the places of religious worship. It might come from him
with better grace, as belonging to a body of persons not the immediate
object of attack in this instance — he meant the ministers of the
Church of England — but he desired on all general questions to take
the broad, common, scriptural ground of our common Christianity,
of the religion of truth and love, and he felt it right to say that re-
ligion wiMS^ have " free course" in the West Indian Islands, and every
minister of religion. Churchman and Dissenter, must have full and free
liberty to publish the gospel of Christ to every sinful, miserable crea-
ture who was ignorant of it. Was it possible for Christians in Eng-
land to come to the decision so universally adopted in the 'We&t
Indies — that, if Christianity and slavery come into competition,
slavery was to be preferred, and Christianity persecuted ? What had
the two systems done to the slave population ? Slavery fastens on the
manacles of the slave— Christianity dissolves and destroys them.
Slavery starves the Negro— 'Christianity feeds him. Slavery strips the
Negro naked— Christianity clothes him. Slavery drives the iron of
affliction and ignorance into his soul— Christianity gives him the
'-' glorious liberty of the children of God." {Great applause.) Such
was the comparison ; and let the people of England decide whether
slavery should survive, and Christianity be extinguished, in that
country of guilt an-d wretchedness. His honourable friend, Mr. Bux-
ton, had called on the ministers of religion to " adopt effectual mea-
sures" for establishing the rights of the gospel in the West Indian
islands. What measures did he mean 1 They were here to-day pue-
pared for the adoption of all measures which were pacific, constitu-

X

154 General Meeting— Dr. Lushington.

tional, and scriptural. And he, for one, was ready to be here to-morrow,
and the next day, and the next, till the great object was accomplished.
But they must be directed what to do, so as not to let the feelings
roused by this meeting evaporate in mere words.

There were two classes to whom, in conclusion, he would say a few
words. Were there those present who regarded the question merely
as a question of benevolence ? Then, let them look at the fact stated
by Mr. Buxton— that, in 11 years, there had been a destruction of
52,000 slaves ; and let them remember that the extinction of these
52,000 slaves was a small part of the evil. The population ought not
only not to have diminished by 52,000, but to have increased at the
rate of doubling in 25 years. How many lives, then, had been de-
stroyed in anticipation ? How many Negroes had been, as it were,
stifled in the birth ? Of what torrents of Negro blood had slavery
been guilty? Nothing, as he thought, could be more dreadful^
aiFecting, and awful than the spirit of many of the planters as to the
Negro population. Not satisfied to exclude them from all the privi-
leges of this life, they wished, if it were possible, to legislate for another,
and cut them off from all the privileges of eternity. And it was to
this point he wished to address his concluding remarks. Had the re-
ligious part of the community even approached to the discharge of their
duty as to this momentous question? Was the complaint of his
honourable friend Mr. Buxton well grounded— that, both in and out
of the House of Commons, they had failed him ? If so, did
they recollect that, while slavery remained, Christianity could make
no real progress among slaves, or among the whites by whom they were
controlled? All that the Negroes knew of Christianity they were left
in many instances to learn from the planters — from apostles, that is,
who came to them with a whip in one hand and a chain in the other.
Were such teachers likely to recommend the gospel of the meek and
lowly Jesus ? Let Christians then especially arise to the discharge of
their duty — let the Negroes look at Christianity through a right
medium— let them see, in every professor of the gospel, a man whose
first object it Avas to teach the ignorant, comfort the miserable, and
liberate the enslaved. {Cheers.)

Dr. LUSHINGTON rose to second the resolution proposed by the
Rev. Gentleman who had preceded him. He felt it incumbent on
him to express his warm congratulations, that, at a time when a great
national question was so strongly bearing upon the attention and de-
votion of the public — at a time when the household fire of liberty
was burning in every British bosom — so numerous, so respectable a
meeting had withdrawn itself from the absorbing topic of domestic
rights, to devise means for the extinction of that oppression which,
while it had reduced tens of thousands to degradation, had likewise
accumulated a fearful load of guilt on the head of the oppressor. He
had ever said that the condition of the slave was most deplorable,
both as to his mind and his body. He had always considered hira
the innocent victim of the most iniquitous system of oppression that
had ever prevailed, and which, for the sake of obtaining sordid ad-
vantages, had continued to stain the character of England for 200

General Meeting--- Dr. Lushing ton. \55

years. But it was for the benefit of the master, as well as the
redemption of the slave, that he appeared as a humble soldier in the
sacred cause ; and he besought those who heard him to reflect that,
if at that very hour there were hundreds of thousands in this country
so excited as to be ready to sacrifice life — fortune — all that was dear
to them, to obtain what they conceived to be a security for their po-
litical liberties ; he entreated them to bear in mind what this political
liberty was, compared to the personal freedom denied to the slave.
What was the question of a form of government, in comparison with
the interest that should be excited in the mind of every reflecting
man by the question of whether a fellow-creature should be allowed
the right of enjoying that domestic security without which life itself
became a burthen (applause) — whether he might protect the wife of
his afi'ections from the degrading lash — whether he might preserve in-
violate the chastity of his daughter — whether he might retain the son
of his hopes under his paternal care, to mould his character as a man,
and confirm him in habits of obedience to his God ?

The resolution before the meeting set forth the necessity of Parlia-
ment redeeming its pledge, and taking effective measures for the abo-
lition of slavery. He would not detain them many minutes in demon-
strating the necessity of obtaining the abolition of slavery, contrasted
with a measure of mitigation. He had always contended that the
existing laws relating to the treatment of slaves mitigated the system
to a certain extent, only on the condition that the remaining part should
be perpetuated. They might as well take a thief, condemned to the
gallows for an offence of the greatest magnitude, and tell him they
would allow him to perpetrate any misdeed, however atrocious, pro-
vided only that he did not overstep a line which they had drawn. The
Almighty had invested man with no such powers'of moral compromise.
He had laid down an immutable line of truth and justice, and had ex-
plicitly pointed out where they wei'e to act and where they were to
forbear. It was not permitted them to say " We shall give so much
to God and so much to Mammon."

While reflecting on this subject, he had occasion to examine the
laws and the records of the legal proceedings of the West India Islands,
and had directed his attention to the Act passed by the Jamaica Legis-
lature in 1831, which has been held up by the Committee of West
Indian proprietors in London as the great prototype of the mercy,
justice, and protection which they are desirous to extend to the slave
population of their estates. This act had been framed by cer-
tain persons, to establish a system calculated to deceive the people of
England, and not to dispense mercy to the slave. He would state to
the meeting a few of the provisions of this law, that they might see the
spirit in which it had been framed. For instance, it was provided that
if a slave should strike or offer violence to a white man, he should be
punished with death, or some lesser punishment according to the dis-
cretion of the court, unless he acted under his master's orders, or for
the defence of his master's person or property. Now, what would
any person in this country think of such a law and its exceptions — a
law through which a man might be punished with death for the de-

156 General Meeting — Dr. Lushingi&n.

fence of his own life — of his dearest connexions — for protecting hh
wife or his child — while he was privileged in resorting to violence when
under his master's orders, or in defending his person or goods ] {Hear.)
The slave must submit unresistingly to every scorn — to every insult —
to every injury : whatever might betide himself, not a muscle must
he move against his white lord. But mark — to atone for this restric-
tion, he was empowered to hazard life and limb at his gentle master's
mandate — for the safety of his beloved person, and the security of his
bales and his casks. Mark the distinction ! (Hear, hear.) He could
not have believed, but for the testimony of his eyes, that the world had
produced men so blind to every sense of justice, so destitute of com-
mon feeling, as the framers of this law ; and yet this was a law enacted
within one year from the present hour by Christian men, boasting to
be Englishmen, and followers of Clirist. (Hear^ hear.)

But this was not all. He would specify some of the compassionate
regulations of this humane Code. By the clause for the limitation of
slave-punishment it was enacted, that in the absence of the owner,
attorney, or overseer, any person having charge of the Negroes might
-inflict ten lashes without being liable to undergo consequent investiga-
tion— so that any subordinate person left in charge of the slaves had
full leave and liberty to punish to this extent according to his pleasure.
But this power was nothing to that of the owner, attorney, or overseer.
Each of these parties, when on the spot, for any cause, or for no cause
beyond his personal whim or caprice, and without being liable to
be called to any account, might inflict thirty-nine lashes of the cart-
whip, and the punishment might be repeated after a short interval.
Had it not been set forth in the Act, he could not have given credence
to the legalized existence of powers so revolting — even after the refusal
of religious instruction to the Negro. But, when once men abandoned
the straight forward course prescribed by nature and morality, the un-
derstanding became mystified, they viewed their conduct only through
their interests, and grew callous to the indignation which oppression, in
all its gradations, awakens in the generous and unsophisticated heart-
Yet the answer to all that the Government had said, in its interces-
sion for the Negroes, to the Colonial Assemblies, in substance, is, that
they were most anxious to do their duty ; and that, by way of a
remedy for every possible injury, with a view to compensate for all
defects in the legislature, the Colonists had established a Council of
Protection, whose duty it was to admininster justice between the
slave and the master, and which is vested with authority to punish
the party who unduly inflicted sufferings on the unfortunate slave.
The report of the Committee of the West India body represented this
Court as pledged to the strict performance of its duty. But, at
the very period when this announcement was made, there appeared
another West Indian report, which illustrated very strikingly the kind
of protection that was afforded by this Council, namely, the case of
Mr. Jackson, the Custos or Senior Magistrate of Port Royal in Ja-
maica, and two of his female slaves. The facts are given in a despatch
from Lord Goderich to the Earl of Belmore, dated Nov. 1, 1831.
[Dr, Lushington's statement of this case was given in language so

General Meeting — Dr. Lushing ton. 157

forcible and affecting that many of the audience shed tears, and the
ladies wept, many of them audibly ; but this part of his speech has
been so imperfectly repoi'ted that we adopt the following narrative of
the facts from the Official Despatch of Lord Goderich.]

" It appears that the elder of these slaves was the mother of the
younger, and that they had both passed their lives in domestic ser-
vice, and without having been employed in field labour. A dialogue
seems to have taken place between Mrs. Jackson and one of her
children and these women, in which it may be inferred that the slaves
exhibited some violence of demeanour, attended with language unbe-
coming the relation in which they stood to Mrs. Jackson. It is not
without a painful sense of the degrading light in which the narrative
exhibits a lady in Mrs. Jackson's rank of life, that I proceed with it.
She with her own hands took a * supplejack' and flogged the younger
slave with it till the instrument broke. The flogging was then re-
newed with a whip. On this the mother broke out in violent remon-
strances, when Mrs. Jackson (in terms which I will not venture to
transcribe or to characterize) threatened to punish her. In her renewed
remonstrance the mother stated that her mistress * had flogged her
before Christmas, had laid her down and flogged her by the driver.'
The daughter is said to have then been placed in the corner of the room
to stand up the whole day. The mother was placed in the stocks, a.nd
kept there ' two or three weeks, night and day.' At the end of that
time she was carried to the other stocks, in a place called the hot-house,
where she was kept * for about two or three weeks,' the daughter
being placed in those stocks from which her mother had been removed.
For no less than four months these unfortunate women, though bred
as domestics, were employed in the field, and, when not in the field,
were confined in the stocks ; and both the labour and the confine-
ment were so arranged that, during the whole period of the punish-
ment, they should have no opportunity of speaking to each other.
This protracted confinement in the stocks appears to have been pecu-
liarly strict, and even the Sundays were passed in this dreadful
situation. Incredible as it might appear, the mother, even while
labouring under fever and ague, was still kept in the stocks. She
had lived for twenty-two years in the service of the family by whom
she was thus treated.

" The younger female, in her evidence, describes herself as having
been beaten with a strap by the hands of Mr. Jackson himself; as
having then been flogged by Mr. Jackson's orders with a new cat; as
having been confined in stocks so narro was to wound her feet ; as
having been kept there at night for more than six weeks or two months.
During her labours in the field, she states her arms, neck, and back,
were blistered ; that, on complaint being made of this to Mr. Jackson,
he answered merely by a brutal oath, and that he proceeded to send
for scissars, with a view to cut off" her hair, to compel her to remove
from her head, and place round her neck, a handkerchief, which was
the only defence from the sun."

It appeared, from the evidence referred to by Viscount Goderich,
that the cruel treatment of these unfortunate females, and their nightly
confinement in the stocks, were continued for very nearly six months,

158 General Meeting — Dr. Lushington.

namely, from the middle of January to the 4th, of June, 1831. At
the latter period, a complaint having been preferred to Dr. Palmer, a
neighbouring magistrate, that gentleman interfered, and addressed a
letter to Mr. Jackson to apprise him of the measures which he pro-
posed to take for investigating the affair. Upon this, Mr. Jackson
applied to Mr. Campbell Jackson, his own brother, who was also in
the Commission of the peace, to undertake the investigation of the
complaint, with a view to screen himself, of course, from the scrutiny
of an independent enquirer; and Mr. C. Jackson accordingly summoned
the two slaves before him.

This, continued Dr. Lushington, was the commencement of West In-
dian justice, and its progress was worthy of such a commencement.
Without detaining the meeting by going over all the details of the
proceedings, he would briefly state that the brother of the accused
party having pronounced the complaints of the two slaves, in re-
gard to the treatment above described, to be " frivolous and vexa-
tious," hurried the case, in defiance of the remonstrances of Dr.
Palmer (who had appealed to the Governor) into the hands of a
" Council of Protection" (as it was called), " every member of which
virtually owed his appointment to the magistracy to the recommen-
dation of the Custos whose conduct they were required to investi-
gate." And what was the award of this " Council of Protection I,"
It was (to use again the words of the Colonial Secretary) " that
there were not sufficient grounds for a prosecution ; that neither the
letter nor the spirit of the law had been infringed." {Cries of shame !)
Now he (Dr. Lushington) believed that the Council had arrived at a
true decision. (Hear.) As a living man, destined to answer before
the throne of everlasting justice, he believed that the statute was not
framed either in the letter or spirit of equity ; he believed that it was
framed not for the protection of the slave from cruelty, not to serve
as a shield against oppression, but as a means to perpetrate all the
horrible excesses of arbitrary will— to give full scope to the power
and authority of the master, uncontrolled by responsibility— without
the fear of incurring the possibility of punishment for the outrages
offered by his distempered passions to the unfortunate beings whom
Providence had, for a season, committed to his charge. (Applause.)
But the decision of the Council of Protection went on to state " that^
in cases of confinement, the duration of the punishment was not
limited by law." Was that justice 1 Did that show the spirit of
amelioration— of improvement of the condition of the slave, which
the colonist had so often promised, and which that very Act itself
affected to give? Thus it appeared that the limitation of imprisonment
was to be determined only by the will of the master ; for the Council
added to their decision that the owner was bound only to show that
his slave had a sufficiency of necessary support during the time. The
Council, indeed, did admit that, though the language used by the
slaves was bad, " it would have been desirable that a less protracted
punishment had been resorted to by the parties accused, or that they,
on finding confinement had not the effect intended, had brought the
slaves to trial." " Here," said Lord Goderich, in his notice of the
case,." was a mother, for the alleged offence of intemperate language, .

General Meeting — Dr. Lushington. 159

compelled to witness the scourging of her daughter." Who was there,
he begged to ask, in that assembly— was there a mother present who
could see her daughter violently scourged before her face and remain
silent ? The feelings of human nature were outraged by the sight,
and that feeling which was above all the tenderest and strongest-
maternal attachment.

The rest of the melancholy tale was told in a few words. After the
decision of the " Council of Protection," the Attorney-General, by
order of the Governor, preferred a bill of indictment against Jackson
and his wife to the Grand Jury, which, as might be expected, was ig-
nored, and thus the parties screened from all legal punishment.

Lord Goderich did what he could to mark his sense of this atrocious
case : he directed that the two Jacksons should be forthwith dismissed
from the magistracy ; and desired the Governor, unless some local
enactment existed to prevent such a measure, to instruct the Attorney-
General to proceed in the case by a criminal information.*

But what he (Dr. Lushington) wanted to know was, the condition
of the poor slaves, the wretched mother and daughter, thus left in
the power of an irritated man and a merciless woman, who could of
course wreak their anger and disappointment upon them Avith impu-
nity ? The feelings of this man and woman (they scarcely deserved
the name) were pretty well evinced as to what they could do, in the
manner in which they had already punished these two poor wretches ;
for the mother and daughter were kept apart, and not allowed to see
each other during the whole period of their confinement. Could
they, then, hope for much better treatment in future ? And, since the
law allowed the owner to inflict thirty-nine lashes of the cart-whip on
his slave without investigation, what day could they say, " We are
safe, and free from persecution ?" But the cruelty of Jackson was not
confined to the imprisonment of these creatures. It was further shown
in the brutal treatment of the younger slave, while suflPering from
the eflfects of a scorching sun, in the field, as described in Lord
Goderich's letter.

[Here the learned gentleman stated some of the revolting facts of
the case, by which the audience were powerfully aflPected.]

And, with such facts before him, was he not justified in saying that
neither the letter, nor spirit, nor practice of the law, was ever in-
tended to prevent cruelty? Was he not justified in saying that the
monstrous evils which had grown up, under this odious system, required
immediate redress, and that there was no hope of any effectual mea-
sure of that kind but from the interference of the Legislature at
home ? Was there any one, he would not say in that assembly, but
in all England, so great a dolt as to expect it from the legislature of
Jamaica, when he knew that the representative of that Island in

* The decisive conduct of Lord Goderich in regard to this flagrant affair, as
well as the entire spirit and tenor of his official despatch on the subject, claims
our most unqualified respect and applause. We regret that we cannot find
room here for his Lordship's stringent and unanswerable observations on the whole
case ; but a full statement of the facts, with his Lordship's comments, will be
found in the " Anti-Slavery Record" for June, 1832.

160 General Meeting— Dr. Lushington.

this country [Mr. Burge] had publicly, in the hearing of persons now
present, and to the disgust of the House of Commons, asserted the
claim of the owner to his slave as to his freehold ? Surely those
who asserted that man had property in the life and liberty of his
fellow-man were not the parties to whom should be left the task of
legislating for any real amelioration of his condition.

He would now say a word as to the constitution of the Committee
appointed by the House of Lords on this subject; and he must ob-
serve that, of all the ingenious subterfuges to which detected guilt had
ever had recourse for obtaining a temporary respite, that Committee —
that curious measure — that ingenious devices-was inferior to none.
He unfortunately belonged to the law, and he had got, somehow or
another, he knew not how, it might be perhaps from his legal reading,
or from the study of moral and religious works, that old prejudice,
that a man who was to be judge in a case ought not to have any
interest in the matter on which he was to decide. But the Committee
of the House of Lords seemed to be formed upon the principle that
men should be selected as judges just in proportion to the interest
they had in the matter before them ; and, in order to let the meeting
see this, he would read to them the names of some of that Committee.
There were among its members as follows — the Duke of Buck-
ingham, a slave-owner; the Earl of Harewood, a slave-owner; Lord
St. Vincent, a slave-owner; Lord Combermere, a slave-owner; Lord
Howard De Walden, a slave-owner ; Lord Holland, a slave-owner
(hear, hear) ; the Marquis of Sligo, a slave-owner ; and not the son
only, but the father — we had now Lord Seaford, a slave-owner. If
he did not declare to the meeting that he had no very high respect
for a Committee of the House of Lords, let it not be supposed that
he had not formed a very strong opinion on that subject ; however, to
prevent any mistake, if those present would not repeat it, he would
tell them that he had no respect for that Committee. (Cheers and
laughter.)

But could they imagine the people of England to be such dolts as
to have one particle of confidence in a body so constituted 1 He must
say that, with the exception of Lord Suffield, there was not one mem-
ber of that body who had ever distinctly pledged himself to the
total abolition of slavery. (Hear.) There was indeed upon the
Committee the name of another Lord who. was as friendly to the un-
happy Negroes as a man could be who thought that it was enough
to make their chains lighter and their pains less grievous, but who
would not pledge himself unqualifiedly to support their j ust claims to
freedom — he meant Lord Goderich. (Hear, hear.) He regretted
deeply that that noble Lord was not able to carry with him into his
retirement the consolation that, whilst his office gave him the power
(as it imposed upon him the duty), he had advised his Majesty to re-
commend to parliament a measure for the total and speedy extinction
of that diabolical system. {Cheers.) Let him add, that if ministers,
whoever they should be, would not endeavour to do their duty to God
and man on this great question, he would, to the extent of his humble
abilities, never flinch from declaring his sentiments, without reference
to party.

General Meeting — Dr. Lushington. 161

He believed that there were men on the Lords' Committee who
were utterly ignorant on the subject— men who did think that great
progress had been made in the religious instruction of the slaves in
our colonies, and that by the Church of England ; and who also be-
lieved that, though the planters so much disliked the Baptists and
Wesleyans, they would encourage the services of the Church of Eng-
land. But he believed that those very planters would detest the
Church of England as cordially and sincerely as they did the Baptists
or Wesleyans, if they did not think that the clergy of that church
were not very earnest, or pains-taking, in the spread of Christianity
among the slaves. The subscriptions which had been made by the
planters for the erection of churches in the West Indies were
deemed a proof of their disposition, by means of the Church of Eng-
land, to promote religious instruction there ; but he laid little stress
upon that fact ; and when he knew how popular one reverend member
of that church (the Rev. Mr. Bridges), the libeller of Mr. Wilberforce
and the tyrant of his own slaves, was among them, — he was convinced
that it was only if the planters could have men of the Church of Eng-
land of that stamp that they would be disposed to give them en-
couragement. (Hear.) The Church of England, he must say, had
for a century and a half been grossly negligent in giving instruction
to the slave population of our colonies. Whatever was done in that
way (and much had been done for the dissemination of Christianity
amongst the slaves) was done, not by the Church of England, but by
the Moravians, Baptists and Wesleyans. He was aware that he laid
himself open to misrepresentation in this matter, but this was a time
at which the truth ought not to be concealed.

As to the late rebellion in Jamaica, he would not say that it had
been directly incited by white men, or caused by their rebellious
example. It was enough to say that rebellion was the natural
and inevitable consequence of slavery : and he believed that as long
as the condition of the slave remained as it was — as long as the cart-
whip was used as the stimulus to labour — as long as the parent might
be separated from his wife or child at the caprice of his owner — so
long, if man in those colonies was regulated by the common im-
pulses of our nature, would the slave owner be without security
against the recurrence of rebellion. The late rebellion had been pro-
ductive of great loss of life at the moment, and hundreds were
afterwards sacrificed on account of it ; but he should like to know
in what form an indictment would be drawn up against a slave for
having taken part in that rebellion. If it were drawn up in this
country, it would be something in this shape : — That he (the slave),
being instigated by the devil, had in the first instance been taken from
his home, his friends, and his country ; that he had been fettered
and brought a prisoner across the seas to the West Indies, and there
by the interchange of a little money, between those who brought
him and those who received him, he was condemned to labour for
life for a man to whom he had never done any injury; and that he
had (by the same instigation of the devil) endeavoured to re-
lease himself from that wretched, condition ! The guilt of the Negro

Y

162 General Meeting — Dr. Lushington.

consisted, in fact, in his seeking to recover that freedom which was his
inalienable right. Then, as to his punishment, he would ask, could
any man, who had any sense of justice, say that he deserved death
who had done this without having violated any one law of humanity ?
He must contend that those who condemned a slave to death, on such
grounds, would draw down upon themselves the damning guilt of
taking away an innocent life. The utmost severity of the law had
been exercised upon hundreds of individuals whom no man of common
sense or justice could pronounce guilty of a criminal act.

The honourable and learned gentleman then proceeded to contend
fhat the only effectual way of putting an end to the evils of slavery
was the total abolition of slavery itself. The question of profit or
loss, which might be urged as a ground for the continuance of slavery,
he regarded as absurd and wicked ; no man had a right, he contended,
for any acquisition of wealth to violate the laws of God and nature.
In England, even in cases where guilt was certain, there were many
who strongly disapproved of taking away life, though forfeited according
to penal law ; but, in the West Indies, sentence of death was inflicted
on those who in their efforts to gain freedom did not violate a single
principle of morality.

Before he sat down he would beg to impress upon the Meeting (and
he would beg of them to impress it on their friends) the necessity, in
every future Election, of urging on those who came forward as candi-
dates that they could hope for no favour or confidence from the
electors, unless they gave a most deliberate, a most explicit, pledge to
support the immediate and total abolition of slavery. {Applause.')'
Let them not be satisfied with ambiguous answers or vague promises
of considering the subject; but let them bind down every individual
whom they sent to parliament by the strongest, the fullest, and the
most explicit pledge, that he would vote for total and speedy abolition.
If this were done, the final settlement of that question could be no
longer delayed, but without this assurance all governments would be
alike unable to afford them co-operation. Let them recollect that the
West Indian body, to whom they were opposed, were a strong and
powerful body, an embattled phalanx, bound together by what they
considered their common interests, the strongest bond of union, and
that nothing but the most united and energetic efforts of the people of
this country could be sufficient to overcome the opposition of that
body. Earnestly did he implore the people to make those exertions.
Let them recollect that, in thus acting, they served the cause of Him
who made them ; that their great object was to rescue 800,000 of
their fellow-subjects from slavery, and to change, as he might call it,
the still worse condition of their unhappy owners. {Loud Applause.^

The Resolution was put and carried unanimously.

Mr. WILLIAM SMITH, before he proceeded to propose the resolu-
tion entrusted to him, would endeavour to set the meeting right with
regard to a point which had been adverted to. He would assert on
behalf of that revered man, Mr. Wilberforce, and of those who had
acted with him, that it could not be justly said they had as yet
achieved nothing. On the contrary, he thought he could point

General Meeting — Mr. Smith. 163

out essential services which they had rendered in the early stages
of the slavery question. In every great enterprise — to every large
army — there must be pioneers ; and neither Hannibal nor Buona-
parte could have scaled the precipitous Alps w^ithout having as-
sistance of this class to clear their way. When they commenced
their efforts on behalf of the injured Africans, an attempt was made,
under the auspices of some of the slave-traders of Liverpool, to deny
to the Negro the claims of humanity. They actually denied that they
were men ! {hear, hear) ; and one of the reasons assigned, in support
of their opinion, was, that the murder of a slave in Barbadoes Was
punishable only by a fine of £11. 5s. Od. Wilberforce and his
friends (among whom the name of Clarkson should ever be recorded
with distinguished honour and gratitude) succeeded in driving out of
the field these first and most disgraceful of the opponents of negro
emancipation. And at no distant period (only thirty years ago)
Lord Seaforth, then Governor-General of Barbadoes, desired the
Attorney-General of that island to introduce a bill into its legislative
assembly to make the wilful killing of a slave — murder. Nor was this
bill proposed as an act of justice, but because a man in the garb of
a soldier — a militia-man — had wantonly put to death a negro woman
by a thrust of his bayonet. He was tried and found guilty, with
the salvo ^' if the killing of a slave constituted legally a murder."
Under these circumstances the Attorney-General applied for the Act,
and declared" it to be impossible to refuse it, for, as the law stood, it
was (as he expressed it) in the power of any planter to metamorphose
his dwelling into a slaughter-house for human beings." Li an-
swer to this officer, a gentleman got up, and, designating the
proposition as an insult to the colony, moved, and successfully, its
rejection. Attention having been called to the circumstances in this
country, the wilful slaying of a negro was soon after legislatively pro-
nounced to be murder. That was the first point in which the friends of
the slave were triumphant. They persevered, and, after the struggle of
years, they succeeded in 1807 in getting the Parliament of the United
Kingdom to denounce the slave-trade as " an abomination not to be
endured," — notwithstanding the opposition of the West Indian
body, who defended the vile traffic to the _last moment. The next
step, and it was no inconsiderable one, had been achieved by the
exertions of the present chancellor Lord Brougham. Through
his able endeavours, the practice so unblushingly defended in pre-
vious years was degraded to the rank of a felony, in which most
fitting position it at present stood. The West Indians had continued
for 20 years maintaining the advantages that arose to the country from
a practice which, if now detected, would incur the penalties of felony.
In addition to these beneficial changes, he was of opinion that the
abolitionists had also done something in attracting such an assembly
as that which he looked upon with infinite gratification. The spirit of
the nation had been roused, and it was only necessary to prevail upon
those who had not hitherto joined their ranks to read and reflect.
When it was once established that a negro was a man, and that to
steal him was felony, the principle of the object they desired to attaixi

164 General Meeting — Mr. O'Connell.

was virtually admitted; and, if they went on as they had begun, they
could not fail in a short time to secure, in its full extent, the object
itself. At that hour of the day he would not farther detain them,
but would move, —

"That, under these impressions, this Society has contemplated
with no small astonishment and alarm the appointment of a Committee
of the House of Lords, not for discussing the means of abolishing
Slavery, but for now commencing an inquiry into the nature and
effects of Slavery, although these have been conclusively established
by the evidence of the last forty years."

Mr. O'CONNELL, who was received with loud plaudits, seconded
the resolution. The Honourable and Learned Gentleman said that
it was by brevity alone that he could compensate so flattering a re-
ception : indeed his sole claim to be heard at all was included in one
sentence — he was an abolitionist. {Applause). He was for speedy —
immediate abolition. {Great applause.) He cared not what caste,
creed, or colour slavery might assume ; he was for its total — its in-
stant abolition. Whether it were personal or political — mental or
corporeal — intellectual or spiritual, he was for its immediate aboli-
tion. {Renewed applause.) He would submit to no compromise with
slavery — his demand was for justice in the name of humanity, and
according to the law of the living God. {Applause.) Let him, however,
not be mistaken. He would not say that he was opposed to the miti-
gation of slavery — he would, on the contrary, support every measure
for the mitigation of slavery, provided always that it were a real miti-
gation, and not a West Indian delusion — {applause) — provided it
were not that mockery of mitigation which —

" Kept the word of promise to the ear

And broke it to the hope."

The meaning of real mitigation was, that it would strike off some
particular portion of slavery — that it would make the master less a
master — the slave less a slave, and in so doing would make the master
less a tyrant; for it was not in human nature for man to have dominion
over his fellow-creature without degenerating into a tyrant, in conse-
quence of possessing that dominion. {Applause.) And what did this
prove? Why the radical, essential, and perpetual injustice of slavery.
He denied that any man could be justly the slave of another. If
they asked the West Indians why they were opposed to the abolition
of slavery, the reason assigned would be, that to take this step would
be to rob them of their property. He would meet it at once, and deny
the proposition — {Hear.) He would tell them that they had robbed
men of that which it was not in the power of their victims to bestow —
nor to sell— namely, the soul's unchanging equality, which belongs to
all persons, and apart from the institutions of civil society. There
was a natural equality between man and man, and there could not,
therefore, justly be any such relations as owner and slave. But in this
case the men did not even sell themselves— (jFTear)— he denied that
they could make a transfer of their freedom— but, supposingthat they
could, what power, he would enquire, had they over the liberties of

General Meeting— Mr. O'Connell. 165

their unborn children 1 — {Hear.) Lived there the parent who could con-
template with other feelings than anguish and horror the prospect of
giving birth to a brood of slaves ? Where was the mother who could
rejoice to think that her pains and perils would be rewarded by the
chuckling laugh of an infant, were that infant doomed to be a slave ?
(Applause.) He would tell the West Indians that they could put
forward no plea for delaying emancipation on the ground of having a
property in the slave. They could not have such property— it was in
contravention of the everlasting decree of heaven. He would admit
that they had a property in houses, sugar canes, plantations, sheep,
and oxen, ay and in swine. (A laugh.) He would give them the
swine, but this would not satisfy them, for they placed pig and man in
the same class, and called them both property. But then, said the
Colonists, must they be compelled to feed negroes that were not
their property whether they worked or not? To this he would answer-—
" No ; but when they did labour equitable wages should be paid to
them, and he who could get labour and pay ought not to be fed ex-
cept by the produce of his industry." Let the Negro have the stimulus
of wages to undertake employment, and the punishment of starvation
if he refused to labour. (Hear.) But then it was assumed that the
negro was not prepared for the reception of freedom. Admitting the
fact, who was it that had unfitted him for the exercise of his rights?
The planter ! and surely he who stood between the negro and every
species of instruction— he who impiously and blasphemously placed
himself between the negro and his God — should not be permitted to
tell him that slavery must continue to be his portion, because he had
unfitted him for freedom. (Applause.) But he denied the position.
Who would pretend to assert that it was easier to bear slavery than
freedom ? When the negro bore the horrors and cruelties of bond-
age, where was the insolent man who would declare that he could not
bear the privileges of freedom ? (Hear.) The period had arrived
when every man who had honest feelings should avow himself the ad-
vocate of abolition. He who tolerated and countenanced crime was
himself a criminal, and wherever he (Mr. O'Connell) was able to
utter his sentiments with effect, whether there or elsewhere, his voice
should be raised for liberty, for the complete enfranchisement of the
slave. (Applause.)

He did not choose to interfere with the phraseology of the first
resolution, which touched upon the almost universal sentiment
of the British nation, on the subject of emancipating the Negro,
but he would respectfully submit that they should include in the
resolution the sentiment of the Irish nation ; for he had the happiness
of saying, and he made the statement with pride, that among the
representatives of Ireland, no matter what might be their differences
of opinion on political topics, there was not one who would not vote
in favour of the abolition of slavery. (Hear.) On many subjects
they might be divided in parliament, and out of it ; political dislikes
and animosities might, and unfortunately did exist ; but he could say
to the credit of all the Irish members that there was not a man of
them, of any sect, party, or denomination, that had raised his voice on

166 Geyieral Meeting— Mr. O'Connell.

this question, save to cry down Negro slavery. But with this general
unanimity, it might be enquired why, since the occasion of their last
meeting, they had acted supinely, and allowed the time to pass unim-
proved. An excuse was, however, unfortunately ready in the pro-
tracted adjustment of a question which had absorbed the exertions that
ought to have been made for the Negro, and it was only by waiting
until public opinion obtained a true and efficient organ that they
could obtain the full accomplishment of their endeavours.

The West Indians had of late taken their stand upon the rebellion in
Jamaica; this event had proved quite a God-send to them. {A laugh.)
They had been the unluckiest fellows in the world but for this rebel-
lion ; not a leg had they to stand upon — they were utterly incapable of
motion till supported by the crutch of a rebellion. (J, laugh.) But
what was the amount of this much-talked-of movement ? Let it be
recollected that the Negroes had never rebelled before without inflict-
ing the greatest cruelties on the whites — without retaliating the bar-
barities they had suffered from their task-masters by putting to death
all prisoners, men, women, and children, indiscriminately. How
should they, the friends of the Negro, who had assisted in diffusing
the principles of Christianity among them, rejoice in the delightful
recollection that in the late revolt the prisoners had been almost uni-
versally spared, and that, amidst the confusion and terror that pre-
vailed, scarcely a single white man had been deliberately murdered! It
had been the most humane insurrection recorded in the annals of
negro history. This insurrection, so far from being an argument
against emancipation, was a most decided argument in its favour ; for if
slavery be so intolerable that the unarmed are impelled by it to op-
pose the armed— if, driven to madness, the defenceless and undisci-
plined are incited to struggle with the disciplined— if it were so unen-
durable that it causes its victims to rush almost to the certain
forfeiture of their lives, no fact could be adduced more strongly
indicative of the necessity of emancipation. He would counsel the
planters to emancipate for their own sakes, and before it became too
late. He would tell them to do it before the load of their guilt became
so grievous that a moral earthquake would take place, and sweep
them from the islands.

Let not the friends of abolition allow their humanity to evaporate
in mere words : let them look throughout the country, and as-
certain who were with them in the cause. Let every man who
abhorred slavery petition against it : and he would suggest that
those who graced and softened human life— those in whose bosoms
dwelt the social charities— he would suggest that the women of
England should petition for the abolition of slavery. {Applause.)
Why should there not be a universal prayer for emancipation ? Hu-
manity, justice, religion, called upon them to wipe away this foul
blot, and to effect a change by which they would not only be the
agents in producing an immediate good, but the future benefactors of
countless millions.

It was not Britain's brow alone that displayed the black spot
of blood. The republican States of America were also partici-

General Meeting— Mr. O'Connell. 167^

pators in the guilt. O, the rank inconsistency of those apostles
of liberty who dared to talk of freedom while they basely and
wickedly continued the atrocious servitude of the black native of
America ! Republicans were generally proud and high-minded, and
the pride of the Americans should be made the weapon for breaking
down slavery in their States— for if it were not for the example of
England, which mitigated the impression of the disgrace and crimi-
nality attached to the system, they would not have the audacity to
sanction it in the face of the world. If the American States continued
slavery after Britain had proclaimed emancipation, they would be
placed under civil exclusion by the civilized world ; it would be said
to them, " Ye, hypocrites ! Talk not to us of liberty when you fold
to your bosom the chains of human thraldom !" Let slavery be extir-
pated in the British Colonies, and it must speedily disappear in
America. {Applause.)

There remained but one topic more — a most momentous one—
the great question of religious instruction. How could they call
themselves Christians and see the progress of their faith barred
by Negro slavery ? He hoped to witness Dissenters, and mem-
bers of the Established Church, and the humble Catholics also,
among Avhom was included the individual who then addressed them,
— he hoped to behold them in the name of their common God — dis-
pensing the benefits of his sacred word among the degraded Negroes ;
and he would call upon that assembly to see that the blessings of
redemption be no longer stayed by slavery. The missionaries might
differ from him on particular points of faith and practice ; but he
trusted that they were combined in the greatest point of all— charity ;
and he pledged himself that, if support were wanted to their cause in
any assembly of which he was a member, no man would give it
more zealously— more sincerely than he. {Applause.) Though differing
from the missionaries in some religious opinions, he would do them
the justice to express his conviction, that there was not one charge of
all that there was brought against them, which was not utterly false.
Their only crime was, that they were not criminal — but that they
were exerting themselves meritoriously — teaching the Negro to submit
to his hard fate, in the hope of receiving a reward for his sufferings,
in another and a better world. (Applause.) It had been alleged
that the religious public — for which he owned the highest respect —
had not shown sufficient sympathy for those who had suffered for their
efforts in instructing the slave. He could not personally speak to the
fairness of this charge — he had heard it with great regret, and would
believe it with still greater reluctance. Religion was a combination
of humanity and justice, and that person could not be religious who
was insensible to the cries of humanity or the demands of justice ;
nor was there any liberty secure or stable that was not founded upon
religion. They might attempt to build, but every wind of heaven
would scatter the work of their arrogant erection, unless it were firmly
based upon religious sentiment and religious practice. He trusted
that the accusation made to-day would not be realized to the re-

168 General Meeting — Mr. O'ConnelL

proach of the country. They were on their trial before the British
nation, and, to go clear of blame, they must aid the persecuted mis-
sionaries, and put an end to oppression. (Applause.)

He was reminded of the resolution, which was about a Committee
of the House of Lords. He had no great confidence in a Committee
of the House of Lords, and, as his countrymen would say, " small
blame to him for that" (a laugh) — nor, though his taste might be bad,
had he much confidence in a majority of the Lords. {Applause).
He therefore laughed to scorn their attempts to stop the progress of
humanity and religion, by getting up a paltry committee of West
India slave-holders, only throwing in one or two Lords of an opposite
description — just adding a sprinkling of virtue and goodness, that
there might be something good floating on the foetid mass. (Applause.)
Till the age of miracles returned — till a courtly peer should be enabled
to repel, with his open palms, the waters of the Thames from London
bridge to Richmond, and confine them there — until this occurred, he
should not believe that the Committee of the House of Lords could
arrest the current of opinion. (Applause.) The meeting seeming to
concur with him, he need not therefore detain them by entering on
the consideration of its merits ; he could not conclude, however,
without reminding them that they should all be for abolition. If
persons talked of postponing it, they would answer that they could not
afford to do so ; slavery was a crime — a high crime against heaven,
and its annihilation ought not to be postponed. They had heard a
great deal lately of the iniquity of the East India Company getting
money from the poor infatuated wretches who throw themselves be-
neath the wheels of the chariot of Juggernaut ; he would call upon
them to be no longer parties to the cruelties of the West Indian
Juggernaut, for the tyranny was the same, whether the instrument
were a wheel or a lash, whether the torture were voluntary or invo-
luntary. The priests of Juggernaut were respectable persons com-
pared to those who were opposed to benevolence, humanity, and re-
ligion. No exertions of his should be wanting to forward the cause ;
and he would conclude by imploring all who were around him to think
of what had brought them there, and to unite heart and hand in pro-
moting this great work. (Loud Applause.)

The CHAIRMAN said, that, in compliance with the suggestion of
the honourable and learned gentleman, he would make a slight change
in the terms of the first resolution, by inserting, in lieu of the phrase
" British Nation," the words " People of Great Britain and Ireland."

The resolution moved by Mr. Smith was then put, and carried
unanimously.

The Rev. Joseph Ivimey, at this period of the proceedings, called
on Mr. O'Connell to explain why he had not redeemed the pledge
he had given at the last Annual Meeting of the Society, to bring
forward a motion in Parliament to the effect that no children should
be born in slavery in the British dominions after the 1st of January,
1-832.

Mr. O'Connell, in ieply,said he would appeal to Mr. Buxton, whether

General Meeting — Rev. J. Burnett. 169

he had not been solicitous to redeem his pledge, and whether he had
not been prevented from doing so by his honourable friend undertaking
to bring forward a more comprehensive motion, which would include
those already born. He should not have conceived himself justified
in weakening the effect of the honourable member for Weymouth's
motion, by submitting a lesser proposition to the House of Commons.
{Applause.) He begged to thank the gentleman who had given him
the opportunity of making this explanation ; and he would add that,
if any individual present thought that the motion should be made by
him on Monday, the gun should not set on that day before he had
proposed it.

Mr. Buxton fully exculpated Mr. O'Connell from any lukewarm-
ness in the cause ; and said, though since last year's General Meeting
the advocates of the Negro had met with both opposition and deser-
tion, among the few who supported them steadily was the gentleman
who had just addressed them.

The Rev. J. BURNETT said that the resolution he held in his hand
was a weighty one. It came in, it was true, at a late hour of the day,
but he trusted that, until the business was completed, those who really
loved freedom, and were the friends of the slaves, would endure a little
slavery for their sakes. {Hear.) He was satisfied unless that was done
in this meeting, and in many meetings, and in all our meetings, the
slaves would never be emancipated. The gentlemen who had gone
before him had been chieflymembersof the House of Commons, who had
shown that they had no great confidence in the House of Lords ; but the
resolution he had contained something against the House of Commons.
When he looked back upon what had actually been done, he felt com-
pelled to say, that with the resolution he was about to move he most
fully concurred. They were told that the slaves had been, to a cer-
tain extent, introduced to the privileges of men ; they could not jiow
be slain like animals, for their wilful slaughter was now murder. He
granted this was something. Then there had been a variety of miti-
gating circumstances introduced into the slave code. This he would
likewise admit was something. But what were these things when put
in comparison with the fact that they were still in bondage, and bought
and sold in the public market-places? {Hear, hear.) Such was the
fact, and, however they might regard these mitigating circumstances,
it must be maintained that almost nothing had been done until the
men had been set free. And v/hy was it that they were not set free ?
{Hear.) Certain resolutions had been passed in 1823, and a suffi-
cient measure of time had elapsed for them to obtain all that they
desired ; but they had been told that it was right to continue the
system of amelioration, and this was all the length they had got up
to the present moment.

If the House of Commons had acted its part by the black man as
it had by the white, if it had again and again sent up the black eman-
cipation Bill to the House of Lords, both Houses would have covered
themselves with the halo of glory which was now, perhaps, justly
withheld from both. {Hear and applause.) Why did they not act
so ? {Hear.) Who made the House of Commons ? {Hear.) Let us

170 General Meeting — Rev. J. Burnett.

trace the criminals. We heard high authorities blamed for not making"
peers, but who made the House of Commons ? — The people : and let
him tell the people they were not justified in blaming the Lords, or the
power that made the Lords {Hear, hear), until they sent up men who
were united on the principle that emancipation was a right, and a
privilege, and a matter of justice. (Cheers.) Let them trace the
crime to its sources. Let them tell the constituency that, if they had
played a proper part for the last half century, the slaves would, at
this moment, have been blessing them for the enjoyment of their
freedom, which their united efforts had given. {Applause.) They had
heard a great deal said, and the object of this resolution was to give
them something to do. There must not only be hearing, and clapping,
and applause, but work — and work not merely when countenanced by
their fellows, but in private — not merely the work of field days like this,
but all the year round, and through every moment of time, until there
shall not be a man in bondage within the wide range of the British
dominions, {Applause .) This was the work he was about to give this
meeting and the electors of the empire ; but, previously to doing this,
let him ask what the friends of the cause had been enabled to do in
the House of Commons, for he did not like to blame unjustly. {Hear,
hear.) It was not sufficiently known that there were very few in
that House who went the whole length of eternal justice : it was
not known that this was the real cause why the slave had not been
emancipated. One honourable member made a motion for a speedy
and safe emancipation ; then got blamed out of doors for not using the
term " immediate emancipation," and was said to have deserted
the great cause : but, if this were done, be it known that the House
would scout it, and deride it, and mock it. {Hear.)

He did not deride the House for this, but he wished to state facts
tending to show that it ought to be made a better House. {Hear.)
If emancipation was said to be necessary, it was immediately replied
that it would throw the whole of the colonies into disorder. Were
they now in order? {Hear and laughter.) Were they in such a
condition that they would be thrown into confusion by the use of such
a sparkling epithet as immediate ? were they not under martial law ?
Were there not trials, and judges, and councils, and all the parapher-
nalia of justice without the reality ? They were in any thing but
order : it was almost impossible to make them more confused. {Hear.)
Were not the planters acknowledging that the law was not strong
enough, and dismissing it to introduce the bullet and the bayonet ?
There was much greater confusion likely to arise from the loading of
muskets, the fixing of bayonets, dismissing the judges, discharging
juries, and shooting slaves, than from using the words " immediate
emancipation." {Hear.) He did not believe that these gentlemen
were afraid of introducing confusion — he believed they raised the cry
for the express purpose of creating confusion, in order to subdue the
rising spirit of freedom, that cried for justice in behalf of the sons of
Africa. {Applause.)

But they were often told that they did not do the West Indian
planters justice. {Hear.) They told us they detested slavery in the

General Meeting — Mr. Evans. 171

abstract ; this was their constant language in the House of Commons.
When he was at school, there was not certainly in any map that he
saw a place called " the land of Abstraction." {Hear.) But he
found in the West Indies that they hated slavery in the abstract ; that
was in the land of abstraction. {Laughter.) And, wherever that land
might be, the slavery that prevailed there must be detestable indeed
to be hated by West India slave-holders. {Laughter and applause.)
He, however, could not agree with them even here ; for he was most
attached to slavery in the abstract ; and if all slavery could be thrown
into " the abstract" he Avould sink all emancipation together, and
move the dissolution of the Anti-Slavery Society. Yet this was
the language of the West Indian body in and out of the House,
and, with all the fury of their nature, they turned round and told
us how we maligned them, when we knew that they hated slavery
in the abstract. {Laughter.) But it was not the abstract slave, nor
the abstract whip, nor the abstract market-place, stocks, or jail, nor
any thing in the abstract, that visited whole generations with misery
and death : it was with nothing of this kind that they had to deal,
but with fearful realities — and that was his reason for hating slavery
because it was not " slavery in the abstract." {Applause.) The
slave himself did not feel any thing in the abstract; with him all
was in the concrete. Pteligion was denied him ; personal liberty
was stolen from him ; and suffering and oppression were operating
upon him until he sunk under the power of slavery in terrible
reality.

He would now direct the attention of the meeting to the ob-
ject of the resolution, which was to adopt an address to the consti-
tuency of Great Britain and Iieland, calling on them to unite as one
man in the cause of emancipation. After alluding to the frequent but
unavailing efforts which had been made by the friends of Negroes to
obtain from the legislature the necessary measures for the abolition of
slavery in the colonies, the electors were now called upon to return
only those men who were friendly to Negro emancipation. The
Rev. Gentleman in conclusion said that the address should be sent
with their best wishes throughout the kingdom — and, if the friends
of freedom were obedient to the summons, it was quite impossible that
the day should not be their own.

Mr. W. EVANS, M. P., in seconding the resolution, referred
to Mr. Jeremie's work respecting the state of the slaves in the
island of St. Lucia for cases, which, from the official station formerly
filled in that colony by the writer, afforded a correct exemplification
of the workings of the slavery system. The orders in council had not
been acted upon, though no man complained of the conduct of the
emancipated slaves. The friends of emancipation had a great many
difficulties to encounter, but this afforded no reason for abandoning
hope : it should rather stimulate them to unite their efforts, and trust
to the justice, righteousness, and holiness of their cause, that God
would influence the hearts of the people not to slacken in their
endeavours while there remained a single slave within the British
dominions. ( Applause.)

172 General Meeting — Mr. G. Stephen — Rev. B. Noel.

The resolution embodying the address to Electors was put and carried.
Mr. GEORGE STEPHEN moved the adoption of a petition to
parliament, embodying the sentiments expressed in the previous reso-
lutions, and expressed a hope that it would receive the signatures of
all present at the Meeting, and thereby become invested with an im-
portance worthy of the Society whose united sentiment it expressed.
That Committee against which it protested did indeed call for their
united repi'obation. Of whom did it consist but of slave owners, whom
common decency ought to have excluded, for it was tantamount to
asking themselves if they should continue to practise that system
of murder for which they were arraigned by their fellow countrymen.
There wasLordSeaford,on two of whose Jamaica estates the slaves were
decreasing rapidly. There was Lord Combermere, on whose Nevis
estate 44 slaves out of 240 had died in two years and a half. And
then, though he did not see upon the platform a single mitred head
when a question was under discussion of the deepest importance to
Christianity, it was not so in the august tribunal to which he had
alluded, for in the Lords' Committee there were not fewer than three
prelates enrolled for the purpose of enquiring what particular number
of lashes the slave could by possibility endure ! (Cries of"' shmne.")
Who, he would ask, were these Right Rev. personages ? They were
all slave proprietors ex officio, being in their episcopal capacity
trustees of the Codrington estates ; and, with respect to these estates,
their indirect interest in them was a sufficient reason for restraining
the Lords from nominating them to seats on the tribunal of judgment.
The slave had asked for bread, and their Lordships had given him a
stone ! he had asked for fish, and they had given him a serpent.
Rather should these Right Rev. Lords have addressed their peers in
the spirit of the holy text, " The hire of the labourer who reapeth
down your fields, and which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth.
The cry of him that reapeth is entered into the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth." He was himself a churchman, and felt deeply what was
due to the establishment of which he was a member ; and it was
because he entertained this feeling both warmly and sincerely that
he could not pass over the conduct of their Lordships, concerning this
question, without reprehension. {Hear, hear.)

The Hon. and Rev. BAPTIST NOEL seconded the motion, and pro-
ceeded to say that the planters had too long acted upon their declara-
tion— that Christianity and slavery were incompatible. He held in his
hand a statement respecting the conduct of the Baptist missionaries,
which exhibited the strongest internal evidence of being sti'ictly true. It
showed that the insurrections in the West India islands were neither
directly nor indirectly to be traced to those meritorious men who had
exposed themselves to contumely, to danger, and to death, that they
might faithfully discharge the sacred duties to which they had de-
voted themselves. They had been imprisoned for a month, and were
then discharged for want of evidence. The persecution which the mis-
sionaries had suffered was far too systematic to be attributable to a
momentary excitement. It could only have originated in a deter-
mined disposition for vengeance, and in a rooted enmity to religious

General Meeting — Rev. Baptist Noel. 173

instruction, which prevailed in all the colonies, towards all bodies of
missionaries. It appeared that the Methodist missionaries had also
been imprisoned, and discharged for want of evidence. If there had
been a little of prima facie testimony to show that the missionaries had
forgotten their duty, be could have excused the colonists; but the mode
in which they had been treated in Jamaica, Dcmerara (and in Bar-
badoes also), was altogether indefensible. If the planters did not
entertain a rooted enmity to religion, why was that atrocious Com-
mittee formed which voted that the missionaries were introducing sedi-
tion?— a resolution acted upon by the House of Assembly in Jamaica.
Why did they subject the missionaries, when convening a religious
meeting after sunset (the only time when the Negro could receive re-
ligious instruction), to a fine of £20 ? They who watched the influence
of true religion on the character must have observed that its effect on
the most degraded being was to make him wiser and better, was to
render him, when otherwise he had been goaded into madness by in-
sult and wrong, calm and patient — not submissive like a spaniel,
but Christian-like— cheered under the hardest earthly lot by the hope
of a blessed immortality. Ought not the pulse to beat with the deepest
emotions of pity, when they saw communities resolving that the blessed
Gospel should be driven from the hearts and heads of the poor Negroes?
Were these things accidental ? No ; otherwise they could not be.
The dominion of the West Indian over the slave would go on ; the
religious man must go on ; and the subject before this meeting would
go on. It was fitting that they should obey in all things lawful, but
beyond that line neither slave nor freeman was warranted in pro-
ceeding, for they were responsible to a master higher than the
highest among terrestrial authorities. It was, however, for according
obedience to this precept that the slaves had been punished — had
been flogged and sent to the workhouse. But through every
trial, he would say, let the missionaries testify the efficacy of reli-
gion by the display of Christian fervour. Let Methodists, Bap-
tists, and Moravians alike concur in the sacred work. He would call
on all present, of whatever denomination they might be, if they were
the friends of religion, to stand forward in support of the righteous
cause. The deeds of the planters were suicidal— they would serve
to quicken the energies of those Christian bodies who had been in-
sulted in the persons of their missionaries, and a phalanx would thus
be formed that would pronounce a final sentence upon an unhallowed
system. Persecution would be the parent of a more powerful opposi-
tion. If the West Indians had not persecuted the members of the
established faith, they had done worse— they had scandalized it, by
their pretended " Church Union Society." {Hear.) The rectors could
do nothing in the colonies ; it was true they had manufactured Chris-
tians by thousands per month by baptism, but they were prevented from
advancing the progress of vital religion. (Hear.) He was sure every
minister of the church who really loved the blessed Saviour, and
therefore loved his people, would aid in this glorious cause, and ex-
tend his favour to those who were labouring to promote the know-
ledge of Christ among our species. (Hear.)

174 General Meeting— Mr. Crampton.

The petition was then adopted.

Mr. CRAMPTON, the Solicitor-General for Ireland, came forward,
and said, that after the able statements, and the eloquent appeals,
which this assembly had heard from the platform, it would require
more than that portion of modesty which belonged to his country and
profession, were he now to inflict upon them a speech. He had no
such intention : he only rose to move another resolution, and in so
doing to draw a few conclusions from what had been so eloquently
said. But first he would observe that, however divided on other sub-
jects (and no men were more divided). Irishmen were unanimous in
their detestation of slavery. {Hear.) He trusted that Englishmen
were not less devoted to the cause of liberty. He thought it unjust
to charge the continuation of the odious system of Colonial Slavery
upon any men, or classes of men, in this country. He would not
impute it to the House of Commons ; he would not impute it to the
House of Lords. He thought the blame should be more equally dif-
fused ; he thought the people of the United Kingdom generally were
to blame — all had more or less sanctioned or connived at this, the
the blackest blot, and the foulest stain, that ever disgraced the British
nation. He said that there should be no looking back to find fault,
but that all should look forward, and every hand and heart should be
united in a great effort to remove this abomination from the face of
the earth. {Hear.) They had it incontestably established that the
system of Colonial Slavery was cruel, unnatural, anti-British, and
anti-Christian ; they had it on the declaration of the very supporters
of the system " that Colonial Slavery and Christianity were incom-
patible ;" and on these premises did he arrive at a legitimate conclu-
sion when he asserted that Colonial Slavery ought to be abolished —
totally abolished — immediately abolished. {Cheers.) That it ought
to be abolished they were all agreed ; that it might be abolished they
could not doubt ; and that it must be abolished he hoped they were
all determined. {Cheers.) Mr. Crampton said he had an office to
perform in proposing the following resolution, and they had a duty to
discharge, by exerting all their eflforts and influence to carry that re-
solution into effect. The Learned Gentleman then read the resolu-
tion, which was to the following effect : — •

" That this Meeting resolve to redouble their exertions ; and never
to relax in their most strenuous efforts in behalf of their enslaved fel-
low subjects, until the objects of the Society shall be fully accom-
plished ; and that a Collection be now made, and Donations and
Subscriptions be solicited, in aid of the funds of the Society."

" This resolution," said Mr. Crampton, " asserts the sentiment which
I just now uttered with your hearty concurrence : Colonial Slavery
ought to be abolished, it may be abolished, and it must be abolished.
For the sake of the slaves — for the sake of the masters — for the sake
of British Liberty— for the sake of the British people— in the name
of justice— in the name of humanity— in the name of religion
itself-— ^Zauerr/ must be abolished .'"

Mr. HENRY POWNALL seconded the motion. He called upon
the ministers present, and their brethren, to advocate the cause of the

I

General Meeting — Mr. Poivnall. 175

Negroes. He contended that the church of England gave no counte-
nance to slavery, though some of her members did ; and he could not
conceive that the first founders of that church could have ever coun-
tenanced slavery, or have supposed any of their successors would
have been slave-holders ; for they would not have mocked God by
inserting in the liturgy, " have pity upon all prisoners and captives,"
while they were keeping men in slavery. No, their object was not to
perpetuate human thraldom, but to introduce all men into the " glorious
liberty of the sons of God." (Applause.) He called on the friends
of Negroes to be more zealous in the cause in which they had em-
barked, and pointed their attention to the meeting of those gentlemen
who assembled in the Thatched House Tavern, to observe the zeal
that animated them. He trusted the meeting would go forth pledged
to this resolution, and determined to uphold those men in parliament
who would act faithfully in bringing this subject to an issue ; and he
would say to those men, divide the house on every occasion, and, if
they stood alone, it would be a glorious minority. Paul stood alone
on Mars-hill, and they need not be ashamed to stand alone in the
House of Commons. {Hear.) He lamented the appointment of the
Lords' Committee, but he could easily account for such a proceeding.
He trusted they should hear no more of orders in council ; it was con-
trary to the principles of English jurisprudence that there should be
one law for the rich and another for the poor, and, therefore, he
wanted to hear of no more orders in council, but the establishment of
equal rights and equal laws for all. He would not rest contented
with the most beneficial measures that fell short of the entire
emancipation of the Negroes from slavery. He recommended them
to make the subject a matter of every day thought and domestic
conversation, and to lose no opportunity of pressing it upon the
serious attention of their families and acquaintances. He entreated
them. not to be deluded by the cry of mitigation, and not to think
lightly of Negro-slavery; for, just in proportion as they thought lightly
of slavery abroad, they would undervalue liberty at home.

The resolution was then put and agreed to.

The Rev. J. IVIMEY now came forward to propose an address to
the king, which he conceived to be as essential as a petition to par-
liament.

Mr. SAMUEL THORROWGOOD seconded the motion, and in a
short speech recommended abstinence from sugar cultivated by slaves
as a certain mode of securing their emancipation. (Hear.)

Mr. T. STURGE, a member of the Society of Friends, observed,
that the address to his Majesty had not been submitted to the
Committee, and could not be recognised as the act and deed of the
Anti-Slavery Society, nor was it part of the appointed proceedings of
the meeting. Mr. Burnett also objected to the reception of the
address, on the same grounds.

After some desultory conversation, Mr. Ivimey consented to with-
draw his address, but stated his intention of calling a meeting for the
purpose of adopting it, and declared that he would present it to his
Majesty himself, if no one else would.

176 Debate on Mr. Buxton s Motion.

It was moved by Mr. George Stephen, and seconded by the
Rev. J. Burnett,

" That the thanks of the Meeting be given to the Agents and Cor-
respondents of the Society, for their recent great exertions in behalf
of the cause, and especially in reference to the petition to the House
of Lords."

It was moved by Mr. Beldam, and seconded by the Rev. J.
Burnett,

" That the thanks of this Meeting be given to the Chairman, for
his great kindness in taking the Chair on this occasion, and for his
able conduct in the occupation of it."

The motion being carried by acclamation.

The CHAIRMAN returned thanks for the honour which had been
done him, and observed that, however he might seem to have been
more active in the cause than some others, it was to be accounted for
on this ground, that they had only heard of slavery, while he was a
witness of it for eleven years. It was said to one who read the ora-
tions of Demosthenes, and admired them, What would you have felt
if you had heard him speak them ? So with respect to a very different
theme— slavery— they would have felt their honest indignation roused,
and their zeal for its overthrow far more excited, had they beheld its
cruelties and atrocities. But he trusted that, while they were spared
the painful sight, they would not relax in their efforts, but would un-
remittingly devote themselves, heart and soul, to the cause of the
Negroes, so long as they remained unemancipated.

The meeting then broke up about seven o'clock.

II. — Debate on Mr. Buxton's Motion in the House of
Commons.

Mr. Buxton's motion on the Slavery Question came on for discus-
sion on the 24th of May. It was in these terms : — " That a Select
Committee be appointed to consider and report upon the measures
which it may be expedient to adopt, for effecting the extinction of
Slavery throughout the British dominions, at the earliest period com-
patible with the safety of all classes in the Colonies."

After a very interesting discussion, of which one of the most
remarkable features was the obviously improved tone and temper of
the majority of the House on this great question, an amendment,
proposed by Lord Sandon, and supported by Ministers, to the effect
that all measures for the extinction of slavery should be " in con-
formity with the Resolutions of this House on the 15th day of May,
1823," was carried by a majority of 73, 163 voting for the amend-
ment and 90 for the original motion. We must reserve for a subse-
quent number of the Reporter a more extended account of this
debate and its important results. Meanwhile a list of the minority
who voted for Mr. Buxton's motion, and of the select Committee ap-
pointed in conformity with the Resolution passed, may be found in
the Anti-Slavery Record, No. 2.

London :— Printed by S. Pagster, Jun., 1-1, Bartholomew Close.

TJiii:

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER

No. 97.] JUNE, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 7.

REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS ON THE
CAUSES AND REMEDY OF WEST INDIA DISTRESS, WITH THE
EVIDENCE TAKEN.— PAPER OF 13th APRIL, 1832, No. 381, CON-
TAINING 350 PAGES.

The enormous bulk of this Report precludes an analysis of it. It
is besides vague and unsatisfactory, and decides nothing. The wit-
nesses, with scarcely an exception, are West Indians, and the evidence
of course ex parte. We must confine ourselves to some cursory re-
marks upon it.

1 . A common topic with all the witnesses is, the -peculiar distress ex-
perienced, at the present moment, by the growers of West India produce.
But is the existing distress so very peculiar as is pretended ? With
occasional gleams of prosperity, which have served only to aggravate
the planters' general embarrassments, the whole history of West Indian
speculation, for the last seventy or eighty years, has been, if we believe
themselves, a succession of losses and disasters of the most extensive
and overwhelming description.

" Mr. Long, himself a West Indian and the historian of Jamaica,
establishes the fact, that, so long ago as the year 1750, the planters of
that island were labouring under severe distress. Mr. Bryan Edwards,
also a West Indian planter and the historian of the West Indies, refer-
ring to the period which closed in the year 1792, when his work first
appeared, asserts (2nd vol. book vi. chap. i. 5th ed. p. 587) that
though ' many have competencies which enable them to live well with
economy in this country, yet the great mass of planters are Tnen of
oppressed fortunes, consigned by debt to unremitting drudgery in the
Colonies, with a hope, which eternally mocks their grasp, of happier
days, and a release from their em.barrassments.^

" But we have still more decisive authority than that even of Bryan
Edwards, for the prevalence of great distress at this period, and during
the twenty preceding years.

" On the 23rd of November, 1792, a Report was prepared on the
Sugar Trade of Jamaica, by a Committee of the Assemljly, and con-
firmed and printed by its order, which contains the following passage.

" '■In the course of twenty years, 177 estates in Jamaica have been
sold for the payment of debts ; 55 estates have been thrown up ; and
92 are still in the hands of creditors ; and it appears, from a return
made by the provost marshal, that 80,121 executions, amounting to
£22,563,786 sterling, have been lodged in his office in the course of
twenty years.^ "

Can any thing more disastrous be predicated of the present tirne?

2 A

178 West Indian Distress.

" A gleam of prosperity followed the revolution of St. Domingo; but
in a few years the sky was again overcast, and in a Report of the Assem-
bly of Jamaica, of the 23d Nov. 1804, and printed by order of the House
of Commons on the 25th Feb. 1805, we have the following statement.

" ' Every British merchant holding securities on real estates, is
filing bills in Chancery to foreclose, although when he has obtained
his decree he hesitates to enforce it, because he must himself become
the proijrietor of the plantation, of which from fatal experience he
knows the consequence. No one will advance money to relieve those
whose debts approach half the value of their property, nor even lend a
moderate sum without a judgment in ejectment and release of errors,
that at a moment's notice he ?nay take out a writ of possession, and
enter on the plantation of his unfortunate debtor. ' Sheriffs' officers
and collectors of taxes are every where offering for sale the property
of individuals who have seen better days, and now must mew their
effects purchased for half their real value, and at less than half the
original cost. Far from having the reversion expected, the creditor
is often not satisfied. All kind of credit is at an end. If litigation
in the courts of common law has diminished, it is not from increased
ability to perform contracts, but from confidence having ceased, and
no man parting with property but for an immediate payment of the
consideration. A faithful detail would have the appearance of a
frightful caricature.'

In 1807, the consideration of the commercial state of the West Indies
was referred to a Committee of the House of Commons. The Report
of that Committee was printed, by an order of the House of the 24th
July, 1807, and is numbered 65 ; and it may be referred to with great
advantage, as exhibiting the uniformly ruinous nature of sugar-planting
speculations in our slave colonies, and the desperate and costly expe-
dients which the planters are in the habit of demanding for their relief.
At that time, as now, the West Indies were described as liable, without
speedy aid, to inevitable ruin, and to the loss of a vast capital.

" In the following year the same subject was pressed again on the
attention of Parliament, and a voluminous Report was printed, by an
order of the House of Commons of the 13th April, 1808, No. 178, in
which it is recommended that sugar should be substituted for grain in
our distilleries. To this Report is appended a detailed statement from
the Assembly of Jamaica, dated 13th Nov. 1807, in which they state
that, within the last five or six years, Q5 estates had been abandoned,
32 sold under decrees of Chancery, and 115 more respecting which
suits in Chancery were depending, and many more bills preparing. —
' From these facts,' they go on to say, ' the House will be able to judge
to what an alarming extent the distresses of the Sugar Planters have
already reached, and with what accelerated rapidity they are now
increasing ; for the sugar estates lately brought to sale, and now in
the Court of Chancery in this Island and hi, England, amount to
about one-fourth of the whole number of the Colony.

'* ' Your Committee have to lament that ruin has already taken place,
and they must, under a continuance of the present circumstances, anti-
cipate very shortly the bankruptcy of a rmich larger part of the com-

West Indian Dist7^ess. 179

vmnitij, and, in the course of a few years, of the whole class of Sugar
Planters, excepting perhaps a very few in peculiar circumstances.'

" And the remedy which the Jamaica Assembly recommended was
to adopt means to raise the price of their sugar in England to from
60*. to 705. a cwt. exclusive of duty, as alone adequate to afford a living
profit to the planter ; and to this end they recommend the substitution
of their sugar for British grain in the distilleries.

" On the 15th of June, 1812, a 'Representation of the Assembly of
Jamaica to the King' was laid on the table of the House of Commons, and
printed by its order. It is numbered 279. In this representation simi-
lar complaints to those already specified were renewed. They there speak
of their ruin as complete : — ' For two years has this most calamitous
state been endured ; the crops of 1809 and 1810 are in a state worse
than useless ; — a third draws towards its close with no appearance of
amendment or alteration. The crop is gathering in' (they are speaking
here of coffee), ' but its exuberance excites no sensation of pleasure.' If
the slaves of the coffee plantations are offered for sale, who, they ask,
* can buy them ? — -The proprietors of the old sugar estates are them-
selves sinking under accumulated burdens.' ' If ever there tvas a
case demanding the active and immediate interference of a paternal
government, to relieve the burdens and alleviate the calamities of a
most valuable and useful class of subjects,' ' it is that of the Coffee
Planters of Jamaica.'

" The remedy the Assembly proposed was a high protecting duty, or
even a prohibition of other coffee. — But they proceed —

" ' The distresses of our constituents are not confined to the Coffee
Planters. The growers of cotton, pimento, and the minor staples, are
also suffering severely from their depreciation. The Sugar Planters,
however, call more especially for protection and interposition.' ' The
ruin of the original possessors has been gradually completed. Estate
after estate has passed into the hands of mortgagees and, creditors
absent from the island, imtil there are large districts, ivhole parishes,
in which there is not a single proprietor of a sugar plantation resident.'
' The distress,^ they add, ' cannot be well aggravated,' and the most
moderate recompence which can save the sugar grower from ruin is said
to be 50*. a cwt. exclusive of duty ; for ' it is not to be concealed, and
cannot be denied, that a crisis has at last arrived, when nothing but the
immediate and powerful interposition of the supreme authority of the
empire can prevent our utter destruction. Exactions, debasement, and
privations have been long and patiently endured by the proprietors. A
large proportion of them now see approaching the lowest state of human
misery, absolute want to their families, and the horrors of a gaol for
themselves '.'

" The general effect of these statements, strong as they are, seems to
have been borne out, in some measure, by a speech of Mr. Marryat, in
the House of Commons, in 1813, in a debate on the East India sugar
duties. He is stated to have then affirmed, ' That there were compa-
ratively few estates in the West Indies that had not, during the last
twenty years, been sold or given up to creditors.'

180 West Indian Distress.

" And now, after a lapse of nearly twenty years more, during which
the West Indies have been drawing immense sums from the pockets of
the public for bounties and protections, and have had freedom too given
to their commerce in an unprecedented degree, what is the language
they are at this very moment addressing to Parliament and the nation ?
It is this, — ' The alarming and unprecedented state of distress in which
the whole British West India interest is at this time involved,' the
petitioners say, justifies them in imploring Parliament ' to adopt prompt
and effectual measures of relief, in order to preserve them from vwvitable
ruin.' And not satisfied with the protection they already enjoy, and a
bounty of 5s. to 6s. a cwt., they again revert to the necessity of a large
additional bounty in order to secure to them a remunerating price for
their sugar.

" Instead of looking for help to their own industry and economy, and
to the reformation in their plans of cultivation, they throw themselves
on the bounty of the public,

" And what but this ill-timed bounty has been the cause why
the West Indies should have continued in that low state of improve-
ment which they now exhibit ; — that the miserable hoe, raised by the
feeble hands of men and women, driven forward by the whip, should
still be the only instrument generally used in turning up the soil, to
the neglect of cattle and ploughs ; — that all modern improvements in
husbandry should be almost unknown; — that one unvarying course of
exhausting crops should be pursued Avithout change or relief; — and
that in a climate congenial to them the population should continue
progressively and rapidly to decrease ? These, and many other points
that might be mentioned, are anomalies, which can only be accounted
for by the withering influence of Slavery "and of the factitious aid by
which it is upheld. How different would have been the state of things
in our Colonies, had a different course been pursued I How different
would soon be their state, and this is now a far more important consi-
deration, if they were led to depend on their own resources, and they
were released from the injurious effects of that protecting system
which has hitherto kept them from all effective efforts of improvement I
If there be truth in history, or any certainty in political science, the
downfall of the present system, and of the restrictive laws which
maintain it, Avould prove beneficial to none more than to the Colonists
themselves.

" But it is not the distress of the West India planters, as arising from
the system we have been pursuing, which is chiefly to be deplored, but
the sufferings which it entails on the slave population. For it admits
of demonstration that, independently of the other evils of slavery,
sugar planting, as conducted in the West Indies, is decidedly un-
friendly to human life ; and that its destructive influence is aggravated
by the circumstances which swell the gains of the planter, namely,
the fertility of the soil, and the protection afforded to his produce by
bounties and protections. It is not merely that these advantages
enable him to live at a distance from his slaves, who are thus left to the
care of mere hirelings ; but that they form a strong temptation to an

West Indian Distress. 181

ij^creased exaction of slave labour. Accordingly, we find that where
the lands are most productive, yielding the largest return for the labour
of each slave, and a proportionately larger share of whatever gain
arises from protection and bounty, the ratio of mortality is the highest.
" And it would further appear that while the mortality of the slaves
seems to keep pace with the productiveness of the soil, and the conse-
quent high profits of the master, the distress of the planter seems also
to run parallel with those apparently favourable circum.stances in his
lot. The proportion of slaves sold in execution is greatest in those
colonies where the quantity of produce they rear by the acre is propor-
tionably the largest. The number of slaves sold in execution in De-
merara and Trinidad for example, where the soil is the richest and the
planter's gains the greatest, is more than double, when compared with
its population, what it is in the less fertile colonies. These details are
contained in a volume of official returns laid on the table of the House
of Commons, in 1826, numbered 353."*

2. In affecting to develope the causes of West Indian distress, the
witnesses must have been at some pains to hide from the view of the
Committee some of those which are eminently influential. A few of
these will be found in an article in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, Vol. iv.,
No. 75 (pp. 94, 94, and 101— 104)— entitled, " The question of com-
pensation to the owners of slaves calmly considered" — to which we refer
the reader.

3. Great pains have been taken by the witnesses to prove that the
principal cause of the present distress of the British sugar grower
arises from the immense advantages which the foreign Colonies derive
from the continuance of the slave trade. This it is, they say, which
has mainly depressed and still weighs down the British planter, and Mr.
Macdonnell especially has entered into laborious details to prove this
point. But he has overlooked, in his reasonings upon it, some of the
main elements of just calculation. He has forgotten that while it may
be true that in Colonies enjoying the slave trade' the proportion of
effective labourers on an estate, as compared with its whole population,
may be numerically larger than it is in the West Indies, yet in the
former there are sources of heavy loss arising out of this very trade,

* This is in remarkable agreement with the view taken of this subject by Vis-
count Goderich in his despatch of the 5th Nov. last, lately laid before Parliament.
" The existence of severe commercial distress amongst all classes of society con-
nected with the West Indies is unhappily but too evident. Yet what is the just
inference from this admitted fact? Not that the body should yield to despair,
but that we should deliberately retrace the steps of that policy which has led to
so disastrous an issue. Without denying the concurrence of many causes, it is
obvious that the great and permanent source of that distress, which almost every
page of the history of the West Indies records, is to be found in the institution of
Slavery. It is vain to hoJDe for long-continued prosperity in any country in
which the people are not dependent on their own voluntary labour for support,
in which labour is not prompted by legitimate motives, and does not earn its
natural reward," &c. And again, " I cannot but regard the system itself as the
perennial spring of those distresses of which, not at present merely, but during
the whole of the last fifty years, the complaints have been so frequent and so just."

182 West Indian Distress.

from which our planters are happily exempt. While this country-
carried on the slave trade it was fully admitted and even pleaded by
our planters that the mortality among the newly imported slaves, dur-
ing the first two or three years of their residence in the Colonies,
amounted to at least 20 per cent, on the number sold to the planters ; and
this even while the British slave trade was under strict regulations. Butthe
foreign slave trade has been for the last fifteen years a contraband trade,
and in consequence of this the sharp, fast-sailing vessels, which carry
it on, are so crowded with their wretched passengers that they arrive
in the Colonies in a state of very great debility and emaciation, after
enduring a frightful mortality on the middle passage. While in such a
state, the process of inuring them to the labours of the field produces
a rapid consumption of human life, amounting it is believed, on good
authority, in the first three years after importation, to from one-fourth
to one-half of the whole number imported. A planter, therefore, who
may have purchased 50 slaves, at a cost of £1500 or £2000, may find
at the end of two or three years that he has actually lost by death a
fourth, or a third, or even a half of the capital so invested. Now, Mr.
Macdonnell has not adverted to this part of the case as affecting the
cost of production ; and yet, unquestionably, it forms a weighty item
in counterbalancing the greater number of effective labourers on the
plantations of Cuba and Brazil.

It is the more surprising that Mr. Macdonnell should have omitted
any reference to this most important feature of the case, since at pages
21 and 22 of his evidence (questions 229 — 231) he incidentally notices
the fact that the mortality, among the slaves in Cuba and Brazil,
amounts to 50,000 annually. This part of his evidence is given as
loosely indeed, but still as confidently as every other part of it.
Whatever, therefore, may be his real meaning, whether these 50,000
annual deaths apply to Cuba and Brazil jointly, or separately ; and
whether they refer only to the fresh importations into both or either,
there will, in any of these cases, be an immense deduction to be made
from the aggregate of the advantage which, he labours to prove, is pos-
sessed by the Foreign over the British Colonist. As respects Cuba, the
loss of 50,000 slaves annually Avould be an absorption of capital
totally overwhelming, being equal to a fifth or sixth of its whole slave
population, and far more than sufficient to outweigh the very largest
estimate which can be framed of the advantages, over our planters,
which those of Cuba possess in consequence of their slave trade. Nay,
all that has been said by him and his co-witnesses on the comparative
cheapness of slave labour, in the foreign Colonies, grounded on a par-
tial view of the real facts of the case, will actually be nullified by the
admission of this single additional item into his calculation.

In fact, Mr. Macdonnell, and the other witnesses hitherto examined,
have kept wholly out of view what constitutes the grand and essen-
tial difference between Cuba and Brazil on the one hand, and the
British Colonies on the other. And yet how they could have overlooked
it, if they had wished to state the whole case fairly, it would be difficult
to explain. The grand difference is this :

West Indian Distress. 183

In Cuba and Brazil the planters are almost all resident on their
plantations. They superintend their own farms, and look after their
own labourers. They can dispense therefore with costly establishments
in Europe, at a distance of four or five thousand miles from their farms,
and with the no less costly train of attorneys, managers, and overseers,
which is requisite to supply their place when absent. They raise their
own food ; they breed their own beef, mutton, pork, and poultry ; they
have every thing wanted either for themselves or their slaves, except
clothing and wine, on the spot ; and these they procure, on easy terms,
in barter for their produce.

How widely different is the whole economy of the British planter !
He resides, perhaps, in some fashionable part of London, while his farm
is in Jamaica or Demerara ; and, to supply his place, he has to hire an
expensive agency to superintend its agriculture, and to look after his
stock both human and animal ; an agency, too, necessarily composed of
p'ersons of whom he can have but a very slight knowledge, over whom
he can exercise but a very slender control, and whose interests are not
always in unison with his own, but may, on the contrary, be opposed to
them. Instead of rearing his own beef, mutton, pork, &c., he neglects pas-
turage almost entirely, and pays an immense price for beef and pork
imported from England or America. Brazil and Cuba swarm with
cattle, which may be bought for a mere trifle, and which form a con-
siderable part of the food of the slaves, while fresh beef in Jamaica is
a luxury out of their reach, and which they are most severely punished
even for having in their possession. (See Jamaica Slave Law of 1831,
§. 90.)

What should we expect to be the result of an English farmer's specu-
lation who should choose to buy and stock a large and costly farm, and
then go to reside at Rome or Naples, leaving the whole conduct of his
aff"airs to hired agents, he himself unable to take any part in their
superintendence, and only receiving the net proceeds of his corn and
cattle after they had passed through all the channels of intervening
agency, and sustained all the deductions to which in their progress they
would necessarily be subject ? What hope of profit or prosperity could
any rational man entertain from such a speculation ? And yet such is
precisely the course pursued by the British planter, while the planters
of Brazil and Cuba almost all reside on their farms, superintending
them in person, and living on what those farms produce.

Here is a difference in itself of far more moment than all those which
the witnesses have specified besides ; and yet, for obvious reasons, it
has been passed over in silence.

But it is not in Cuba and Brazil alone that we may view the real
effect of the slave trade on the prosperity of the Colonists who still
have the benejit of its importations. The case of the French islands is
still more remarkable, and is still better ascertained. Martinique, for
example, was restored to France in 1815, with a slave population of
about 70,000. By means of a contraband slave trade, from 70,000 to
75,000 more have, in the interval, been poured into it. And yet we are
assured by Mr. Jeremie, the late Chief Justice of St. Lucia, that the

184 West hidian Distress.

slave population of Martinique has not materially increased, " At the
end of 15 short years," he says, " all these importations have been
swept away, and their slave population stands much now as it did
then." " Now, the planters are generally still deeper in debt; and the
largest slave purchasers make no difficulty in saying that the last 15
years have been so much lost to them." — Jeremie's Four Essays on
Colonial Slavery, 1st Ed. p. 100, or 2nd Ed. p. 102.

Now, it must be admitted that Mr. Jeremie is a very competent wit-
ness to this point, and his accuracy is unquestionable. He filled a high
station for six years in the once French but now British Island of St.
Lucia, almost in sight of Martinique, with which it maintains a con-
stant intercourse. He had access to the best sources of information.
His clear and decided testimony, therefore, on this point, is surely more
entitled to credit than the vague rumours on which the present wit-
nesses have erected their interested theories, and their random calcula-
tions. He even places the actual prosperity of the British planters of
St. Lucia in favourable contrast with the present depressed state of the
planters of Martinique, and directly traces the latter to their enormous
slave trade, the effect of which has been, in consequence partly of the
dreadful extent of the mortality caused by it, to overwhelm them in deeper
distress. The planters of Martinique have lately petitioned the Cham-
bers for relief, in nearly the same terms, and on much the same grounds
with our own planters who have solicited the present enquiry.

4. But there is another remarkable fallacy which pervades the
whole of this evidence. It is the position that land which has been
used to cultivate sugar is not convertible to other purposes. The wit-
nesses admit that sugar is the most exhausting of all crops, and it must
therefore require either a rich soil, or that the land should be highly
manured. Indeed, sugar is the only growth on which the West Indian
farmer ever bestows manure. It may be true, therefore, that lands
planted with sugar cane for many years, until the soil is so completely
worn out as to require high manuring before it will yield a fair crop,
will not be worth cultivating for any other purpose to which manure is
never applied. But it is obvious that the same principle applies uni-
versally. It belongs to England as well as to the West Indies. A soil
thoroughly worn out by any species of culture cannot be made pro-
ductive without being renewed by manure, or permitted for a time to
lie fallow. Land which, without manure, would yield no sugar, could
not be expected to be very productive of other articles ; and yet, without
manure, it would bear any other article better than sugar. But to say
that cane lands which are rich, and not wor?i out, are not convertible to
any, nay, to every other purpose, is altogether untrue ; it is contrary to
all experience in all parts of the known world. — It is notorious that in
Demerara,* Berbice, and Trinidad, many plantations have been turned
from coffee to sugar, and they might be turned from sugar to coffee

* In Demerara, the quantity of sugar grown has increased amazingly since
the peace, and almost all this increase arises from the conversion of coffee or
cottoq estates into sugar estates.

West Indian Distress. 185

again, without any difficulty whatever, as fai* as the quality of the soil
IS concerned ; and that the real impediment arises from the cost of the
sugar works, and the time required for the growth and maturity of the
coffee tree. Many of the coffee plantations and grass farms in Jamaica
were formerly sugar estates that had been abandoned ; and it is perfectly
absurd to suppose that a coffee plantation, which may have been converted
to sugar in 1828, for example, should not be capable of growing coffee
again in 1831 and 1832, merely because it has produced an inter-
mediate crop or two of sugar. In India, where sugar is extensively
cultivated, there is no such difficulty as these witnesses state. Having
there no expensive works for the manufacture of sugar, there is a
regular alternation of crops, as is the case in all good husbandry, and
the land which grows sugar one year bears other crops in succession,
and then reverts to sugar again.

In our own island of Antigua, sugar is made to alternate with other
crops, and in Barbadoes canes grow intermingled with provisions in the
same field. Nay, even in Jamaica, nothing is more common than to
see the 'cane land, when newly planted, bearing at the same time a
luxuriant crop of Indian corn or maize, which is reaped before the
cane is so high as to be injured by the corn planted between each row.

Cane land, it is also admitted^ is convertible into pasture land, and
the neglect of this species of culture is in nothing more visible than
this, — that while, in Brazil and Cuba^ cattle abound to such a degree
as to form the common and cheap food of the inhabitants, in the British
islands fresh beef is so dear that they import salted beef, with pork, and
butter, from England or America, even for the use of their white agri-
cultural servants, instead of rearing their own, which they might do at
a fourth of the cost. But the land, and especially the labour, which
in this direction would minister so essentially to the comfort of all
classes, whether white or black, are required for other purposes ; namely,
to make up the quantity of sugar which, at all hazards, and with what-
ever sacrifices, must be sent home to the British consignee, in order to
pay him the heavy interest on his advances, and the no less heavy com-
missions on the produce consigned to him.

o. This leads us directly to the consideration of that system which
has been established between the West India planter and his consignee
in this country, and which the witnesses in general state to be so ne-
cessary as to render a change nearly impossible ; but which entails
on the grower of West Indian produce a far heavier burden than even
that which they ascribe to the operation of the foreign slave trade.

It is alleged, indeed, by some of the witnesses, that the double com-
missions charged by West India consignees, first on the proceeds, and
then on the duty, is not peculiar to that line of trade. But does it
prevail in any other ? The whole of the tea trade, for example, a trade
much larger in amount than that of sugar, is carried on without this
enormous aggravation of charge. And such, it may safely be affirmed,
is the case almost universally ; and to suppose that the same course
might not be advantageously pursued in the West Indian trade is
wholly to misapprehend the power of British capital and the facilities

2 B

186 West Indian Distress.

of British commerce. Sugar is, by this single contrivance (independ-
ently of all the benefits resulting to consignees from high freights,
profits and commissions on insurances, commissions on the supply of
stores, &c. &c.), loaded with a direct tax of three per cent. — viz. two
and a half per cent, for the merchant's commission, and a half per cent,
for the brokerage, on the duty, as well as on the sale price of the article ;
to which no other trade appears to be liable. This of itself is a large
deduction from the profits of the planter. But, indeed, the whole sys-
tem is framed so as to swell the gains of the consignee lender, at the
expense of the dependent borrower ; and it is with this view, doubt-
less, among others, that the whole system also of fiscal regulations,
respecting the export of refined sugar, appears to have been framed.

6. The witnesses affect to state the reasons why, with every facility
afforded, by the present state of the law to the West Indians, to export
their sugars direct to the Continent (to which a certain proportion of
them must ultimately, though circuitously and indirectly, be conveyed),
they choose universally, with not an exception, first to import them into
this country, and then, after being refined, to export them to the Con-
tinent, thus incurring the expense of a double voyage, with all the
attendant charges of freights, insurances, commissions, landing and
shipping charges, &c. &c. &c. One main reason is doubtless, in many
cases, to be found in the binding engagements under which the plant-
ers are placed by their creditors and consignees to ship their produce
direct to this country. But another and stronger reason, which has been
very much kept out of view in this examination, and which applies
not to the encumbered planter alone but to all, is, that it is only by
passing their sugar through the refining process in England 'that they
can bring them into competition with foreign sugar in the continental
market, or proportionably raise the price in the home market. In spite
of the silence observed on that point by most of the witnesses, it is
nevertheless true that at this very time there is obtained, by the West
Indians, in the shape of drawback, a bounty, which operates not on
the exported sugar merely, bvit on our whole consumption, of not less
than from 5s. to 5s. 6d. or 6*. a cwt. The West Indians, it is true, deny
this, and affirm that the bounty, if there be any, is a mere trifle. But
the contrary nnay be proved ; and indeed nothing else but such a
bounty could account for it, that no sugar should go from the West
Indies to the Continent except through England, till loaded with the
additional chargesof a second voyage, and after having undergone some
refining process, however slight.

To elucidate this subject, a statement will be here inserted, which
was first published in 1827, but which will be found to apply
in a still stronger degree, in consequence of improvements in re-
finery, to 1832than to 1827. At that time, indeed, the highly respect-
able agent of Jamaica, Mr. George Hibbert, scrupled not to admit in a
confidential letter to his constituents, which they afterwards published in
their own Gazette, that " the drawback upon the export of

REFINED SUGARS, AVHEN TAKEN ALTOGETHER, WAS LITTLE IF AT
ALL SHORT OF A GRATUITOUS BOUNTY OF SIX SHILLINGS PER

West Indian Distress. 1 87

cwT.;" and he gives this as a reason for not attempting to disturb even
the high rate of duty of 30s. per cwt. then payable. And yet, at the
very time that he was making this admission, Mr. Whitmore's motion
in the House of Commons for a committee on the subject was opposed
by the whole West India body, on the ground that there was in fact no
bounty.

But, if there be indeed no bounty, we would ask how it happens
that, though the West Indians are now at liberty to export their surplus
directly from their plantations to the continent, they prefer sending it
first to England, and then from England to the continent, though it
thus becomes loaded with double freight, insurance, commission, and
shipping and landing charges. This otherwise strange proceeding
is to be explained only on the principle of their deriving, in some
way, a very great advantage from their monopoly of the British market.
And the fact is that the drawback, on the refined sugar exported from
this country, is so regulated as not only to compensate, to the West In-
dian planter, the heavy extra charges just mentioned, but to afford him
a considerable profit besides, all which must necessarily come out of
the pockets of the people of this country.

It is a further proof of the correctness of this view of the subject, not
only that no raw sugar is shipped directly from the West Indies to the
continent, though the continental ports are open to receive it, but that
the whole quantity exported thither from this country in ?L7'aw state, for
example, does not exceed a few hundred tons, and was probably not
even intended for sale there, being evidently not more than might be
required for the use of the crews of the ships engaged in the trade
between Great Britain and the continent.

The law at that time allowed to the exporter of one ton of refined
sugara drawback of £41. 8*. 4d. And, if it had required 34 cwt. of raw
to produce a ton of refined sugar, this might have been an equitable ar-
rangement. But, in truth, 30 cwt. of raw sugar is equal or nearly
equal to the production of 20 cwt. of refined, besides leaving a consi-
derable residuum, after refinement, of both bastards and molasses.

The statement of 1827, to which we have alluded, was as follows :—
"The calculation of drawback may be thus made :

30 cwt of raw sugar yield about 20 cwt. in all of refined,
being about 75lbs. for each cwt. of raw : on which 20 cwt.
a drawback is allowed on exportation of ..... £41 8 4

Besides the refined sugar, 30 cwt. of raw yield about

392 lbs. or 3| cwt. of bastards : these come into the

home market nearly on the same footing with raw,

which pays a duty of 27s. per cwt., being therefore

•equal to 4 14 6

They also yield about 504 lbs. or 4^ cwt, of molasses, which
coming into the market on the same footing with that
paying a duty of 10s. per cwt. are equal to .... 250

Making in all £48 7 10

188 West Indian Distress.

Now the whole duty actually paid on the raw sugar which
produced all this was, on 30 cwt. at 27s 40 10 0

Leaving a gain of £7 17 10
Or nearly 5s. 3d. on each cwt. of the raw sugar so manufactured, and
making therefore a profit to the West Indians, on the whole of our im--
ports from the British dominions (200,000 tons), of upwards of a
million a year.

" We admit it to be open to the West Indians to say that we have
estimated the quantity of refined sugar obtained from a cwt. of raw too
high, when we state it at 741b. to 751b. : but we think not : and, if an
investigation were only allowed, we are confident it would be shown
that even this estimate is below the truth.

" The yielding of 30 cwt. of raw sugar is, on the above calculations,
nearly as follows : —

Refined sugar . 20 cwt.

Bastards . . 3^

Molasses . . 4^

Waste .... 2

30*
" If the operation of this bounty extended only to the quantity ac-
tually exported, its effects would be comparatively trifling. We should
be paying to the West Indians from 120,000/. to 140,000/. in order
that so much of their sugar as went abroad might be sold at a cheaper
rate to our neighbours than we ourselves can obtain it for ; but pre-
' cisely in the same degree as the price of the sugar we export is thus
lowered to them is the price of our whole consumption enhanced to us.
This effect is inevitable ; and it operates upon us, to a large extent, as a
tax for the benefit of the West Indies."

Having made these preliminary observations, it is proposed to advert
briefly to a few parts of the evidence which has been taken by the
Committee.

ALEXANDER MACDONNELL, ESQ.

Mr. Macdonnell is the Secretary of the West India Committee, and the
person who is chiefly employed in preparing the various statements of
the West India body. He has resided in Demerara for some years, but
is not practically acquainted with tropical, agriculture, or with the de-
tails of plantation management.

Nothing can be more vague and unsatisfactory than the whole basis
on which not only his evidence, but that of the other witnesses is made
to rest. He is asked (Question 12) what is the expense of raising
112lbs. of sugar on the average of estates in the British colonies?

*" We do not vouch for the perfect accuracy of these statements. We proceed
necessarily on data more or less uncertain. This very uncertainty, however,
forms a strong reason for enquiry." [The duty is now 24s. and the drawback in
the same ratio; the bounty, therefore, proportionately less than in 1827.]

West Indian Distress. 189

The answer is, " I consider fifteen shillings and tenpence a fair
average."' — Now in the colonies of Demerara, Trinidad, and some
others, it is admitted that, owing to difference of soil, the same num-
ber of labourers will produce more than double the quantity of sugar
which they produce in Jamaica. The difference is in fact more, but
thus much is the admission of the West Indians themselves (see Ques-
tion 872), To produce in the first class of colonies, therefore, 12 cwt.
of sugar, will require one effective labourer in the year, and in the other
class of colonies at least two such labourers. Suppose the sugar of
both to be equal in quality, both will sell for the same price. Call that
price 25s. per cwt. ; then each parcel will sell for £15 ; which £15 are
gained, in one case, at the yearly cost of one slave's labour, and in the
other at the expense of the labour of two slaves. By the labour there-
fore of one man, 25s. per cwt. are obtained by the Demerara planter,
while the Jamaica planter, for the labour of his one man, obtains only
12s. 6d., being a difference of 12s. 6d. per cwt. in favour of the former.
The cost of production, therefore, is more than double in Jamaica what
it is in Demerara, and Jamaica might as fairly claim protection against
Demerara, or Trinidad, or Mauritius, as against foreign colonies. If the
cost of production is to be the criterion, then the more productive colo-
nies would have no title to consideration on this ground, while the
worn out and unproductive colonies would have to be supported by
large and excessive protection. The protection which might be per-
fectly superfluous for one colony would be inadequate to another. The
real difference between the productiveness of Jamaica as compared with
Demerara, taking the year 1829, is as four and a half to twelve, and
with Trinidad, in that year, is as four and a half to seventeen.

This principle is fully admitted by Mr. Macqueen, one of the wit-
nesses (856, &c.*) The slaves in Tortola, he says, now nearly maintain
their numbers : but they produce, according to him, only 4 cwt. of sugar
per slave. The slaves do not keep up their numbers in Demerara and
Trinidad, though they produce from three to four times that quantity.
Decrease of numbers, however, is no mark of comfort, but rather of
discomfort. The slaves, therefore, must be worse treated in Trinidad
and Demerara, where they decrease considerably, than in Tortola where
they decrease little.

Again, the growth and import from Jamaica in 1830 was 1,386,000
cwt., the population being 330,000; making nearly 4j cwt. for each
slave. The growth and import from Demerara in the same year was
about 850,000 cwt., the population being 69,000 ; being about 13 cwt,
for each slave, thrice the quantity for each slave in Jamaica. Can Ja-
maica then stand the competition with Demerara any more than with
Cuba or Brazil ? Again, from Trinidad the import appears to have been
400,000 cwt., the slave population being 23,000 ; that is nearly 18 cwt.
for each slave, reducing the cost of production, even as relates to De-
merara, from 40 to 50 per cent. — as relates to Jamaica, to one-fourth of

* The figures used in this and the following paragraphs correspond with the
number of the Question in the printed evidence, No. 381 of 1832.

190 West Indian Distress.

what it there costs to raise sugar — and as relates to Barbadoes and
Dominica to one-sixth. Can competition be maintained under such
disadvantages ?

But are the slaves of the prosperous colonies of Demerara and Trini-
dad better off", as indicated by their increase or decrease, than the slaves
of the depressed colonies of Jamaica, Tortola, and Dominica? Their
ruin, therefore, is far more owing to our own than to foreign colonies.

Mr. Macdonnell is further asked what is the increased expense of pro-
ducing sugar in our colonies, as compared with Cuba and Brazil;
and he answers 15*. 10c?.; making in fact the cost of production in
Brazil nothing ; for he states above that the cost of production in our
colonies is just the same, viz. 15*. lOd. (23 — 25). To say nothing of
the absurdity of such a statement, what possible data can he
have for making these calculations of the comparative cost of pro-
duction in Brazil and Cuba, and in our islands ? Of two most material
ingredients in such an estimate he seems to have wholly lost sight,
namely, the want of skill among new Africans, and their frightful
mortality. And is there not at least as great a difference of cost, on
data that are certain, between Jamaica and Trinidad, as is alleged by
this witness, on data the most vague and 'uncertain, to exist between
Jamaica and Cuba ? In truth, the increased supply of sugar from our
own colonies has been far more detrimental to the West Indians than
the increased supply from foreign colonies, and this for obvious reasons.

The witness affirms it to be necessary to find a market on the conti-
nent for a surplus of 50,000 hogsheads of sugar (35, &c.) ; and yet how
could a market possibly be found, under every alleged existing disadvan-
tage, but for the very large bounty now actually given, though so
studiously kept out of view ? The West Indians are enabled to do it
only by the bounty of £5 or £6 a ton, which also in fact lays an im-
post to that extent on our home consumption ; which Mr. Mac-
donnell himself states to amount to 220,000 tons annually, making a
sum of from one million to one million and a quarter. But for this
bounty it would be utterly impossible for them, without a very large
sacrifice, to send their sugar to the continent. And, if the bounty be
now 5s. or 6s. at least, what must it be, on their present showing, in
order to be effective? It must be more than double, perhaps treble, and
all to uphold and even greatly to aggravate the evils of slavery ; and,
while some slave-holders would be enormously enriched by it, others
would still continue to lose.

We do not, he admits (77 — 80), introduce one cask of sugar from the
West Indies direct to the Hanse Towns, or to any other ports on the
continent ; and yet we export all our surplus produce to those towns, or
to some other place on the continent, with a large addition of charge,
which must be defrayed by the mystification of our refining system ;
for a large bounty alone on refined sugar can explain this.

All his reasoning on the subject, as it respects not only the United
States, but Russia and other parts of the continent, applies only to Mus-
covado sugar, and not to clayed. Now clayed sugar can come from
Jamaica to this country on equal duties with Muscovados; and

West Indian Distress. 191

if it may be sent to Petersburgh, as it may, on equal terms with the
clayed sugar of Cuba, why may not persons in Jamaica, not themselves
sugar growers, invest capital in buying and claying Muscovado sugar
there, and shipping it thence direct to Russia? Claying is a sim-
ple process, requiring no expensive works, and no expensive mate-
rials, and no field labour. It is a work which any free black or coloured
person might carry on, and which he would hire himself to carry on.
It is labour not requiring the driving whip, which alone deters free
persons from agncidtural labour. British Muscovado sugar comes only
to England, and goes from England only in a refined state, obviously
because of the bounty. As for claying, it is just as well understood in
our own as in foreign colonies. It requires little or no outlay of capital
on the part even of the planter ; little at least beyond a diversion of labour
from the field to the claying house. If claying would enhance the price,
so as to make it worth the planter's while — 'UtDthing need prevent his
lessening his breadth of cane land and bestowing the labour abstracted
from it on claying. The real obstacles are the bounty, and the mort-
gagee and consignee system. Grenada and Barbadoes formerly clayed
their sugar (see Mr. Macqueen's Evidence, question 861). They do
not now clay it, because the bounty attaches, not to clayed sugar,
but to Muscovado only when exported in a refined state.

Mr. Macdonnell (183) states the case of a Cuba slave ship, which
sold her cargo of 484 slaves to the planters for 145,200 dollars ; but if
the planters, who paid the owner of the slave vessel 145,200 dollars for
his 484 slaves, lost, in the seasoning, half or even a third or a fourth
of them, they would require something in the way of profit, from the
labour of the remainder, to pay the 50,000 or 70,000 dollars, thus irre-
coverably sunk by the mortality ; and this would go far to change
their advantage into a positive disadvantage.

ANDREW COLVILLE, Esq.

Mr. Colville is a large sugar planter, who resides in London, and is
also a merchant and consignee of West India produce.

Mr. Colville's own slaves amount in Jamaica to upwards of 800 ;
besides slaves whom he has in Demerara. Mr. Wedderburn, a gentleman
nearly related to him, possesses in Jamaica alone 1700 or 1800 slaves,
of whose produce Mr. Colville is the consignee.

Now all these slaves, both his own and Mr. Wedderburn's, are de-
creasing in number, although the relative proportion of the sexes is
favourable, and has been so for at least the last fifteen or twenty years ;
the females being about three or four per cent, more than the males.

In two years, from March 1824 to March 1826, the decrease of Mr.
Wedderburn's slaves was upwards of U percent. (A. S. R. vol. iii. p. 146) ;
and on two sugar estates of Mr. Colville's, Blackheath and Southfield,
containing, in March 1817, 568 slaves, the number in March 1820 was
only 519, and in March 1824 it was reduced to 484; being a pro-
gressive decrease in those seven years amounting, in the aggregate, to
84, being at the rate of twelve in each year, or nearly two and a half
per cent, annually. The free Maroons, in the immediate neighbour-

192 West Indian Distress.

hood of these two estates, have increased, during the very same period j
at the rate of nearly two and a half per cent, annually ; making the
portentous difference, between these free Negroes and Mr. Colville's
slave Negroes, of five per cent, per annum. Now if Mr. Colville's slaves
had been as well off, and as well fed, and as lightly worked as the
Maroons, which last have had no food and no supplies but what they
have procured by their own industry, instead of the 484 slaves on
those two estates in 1824 he would have had 652,— being 168 more thari
he actually possessed, — the value of whom, even at £50 a-piece, would
have been £8,400. But is it not on account of this frightful consump-
tion of human life, quite as much as from the rivalry of the foreign
slave trade, that Mr. Colville feels that he needs a bounty ? With 168
more added to his stock, instead of 84 killed off from it, he would evi-
dently have been better able to bear the competition of Cuba and Bra-
zil. Mr. Colville has said not one word of this waste of his human
stock by death ; and yet there are ample proofs to be found on the
table of Parliament that he was aware of it.

In the year 1807, Mr. Colville, then Mr. Wedderburn, was largely
examined by a committee of the House of Commons * on the subject
of West India distress, of which he spoke then in the same strong and
sweeping terms which he now uses. The case then, as now, was abso-
lute ruin, without speedy, nay, instant relief. He testified that the nu-
merous estates with which he was connected, for a long time, had made
no interest at all on their capital (p. 20). There was no plea then of
foreign slave trade ; for none existed. That trade was and had been for
a time all our own, and Mr. Colville and his associates had, in that very
year, been exerting themselves most vigorously to preserve untouched
that cruel and criminal traffic ; and but for the very men who now di-
rect His Majesty's counsels, and who were happily placed over them
at that time, for a brief space, they might have retained it to this
hour. Earl Grey was then the King's leading Minister in the House
of Commons, and had tlie glory of putting an extinguisher on that
guilty commerce, then so fondly cherished by the very men who now
choose to view it, in the hands of others, as the source of their ruin. —
But while they enjoyed it, and enjoyed too a monopoly of it, did it
benefit them ? On the contrary, their extreme depression at that time
may be traced to it — But, not to pursue this point at present, — this
important document has been now cited for the purpose of adverting
to the very full and instructive details, which Mr. Colville then laid
before the committee, on that very subject of mortality, of which he has
had long and melancholy experience. He then produced the case
of various plantations, and among others of one of his estates in the
parish of Westmoreland, which in 1801 had had 345 Negroes, but
which unhappily in 1806 was reduced to 301, being, as he himself
admits, a decrease of two and a half per cent, per ann. (p. 21.) And he
adds, that this estate had been "extremely well managed," and had been

* The proceedings of this committee form a valuable document. It bears
die date of 24th July, 1807, and is numbered 65.

West Indian Distress. 193

well supplied with clothinp^, provisions, and provision grounds.* And
he seems almost to make a merit of not charging this heavy loss of 44
human cattle as an item in his expenditure which Parliament was bound
to meet by a remunerating price. Let us only suppose again, that if,
during the last 30 years, these 345 slaves, instead of being renewed by
purchase, had grown like the Maroons at the rate of two and a half
per cent., they would in 1831 have amounted to 800, whereas, if they
went on decreasing at the rate of 1801 to 1806, and at the rate at which
two of his estates, as has been shown, are now decreasing, they would
have been reduced to little more than an eighth part of that number.
He does not give the name of this estate, or the case might be more
exactly ascertained.

Mr. Colville affirms (261) that cane lands, if broken up, can be ap-
plied profitably to no other use. But surely, if his own two sugar es-
tates of Blackheath and Southfield are not exhausted, so as to require
high manuring, — what crop is it which they might not bear? He has
now on those estates 250 head of cattle. These are now fed in some
way. Would it be impossible to feed 250 or 500 more ? And would
not the effect of that be that he could both supply his agents and slaves
with wholesome food — with fresh beef on the spot, without importing
salt beef, or pork, or butter for the former, or herrings for the latter,
and also have leather to supply all his slaves with the shoes which, by
the late Order in Council, are to be given them, and which otherwise
must be imported ? And would not the increased means of manuring
thus obtained preserve his lands from being exhausted, and make even
his cane fields more productive ?

Mr. Colville, though an old and experienced planter, affirms that
coffee could not grow on low lands (265). He ought to have known that,
in tropical climates, all lands, whether high or low, if good, are adapted
to coffee. Witness the mountain land of Jamaica, and the flat, moist
land of Demerara. Even in Jamaica, the low lands, if fertile, produce
coffee just as well as the high, if not better. And even the dry wea-
ther of the low lands is quite as adverse to the productiveness of
sugar as of coffee.

Our surplus importation of sugar Mr. Colville states to be one-
fourth (267 — 272). Now by a limitation of sugar culture, and a con-
version of slave labour to other objects, as coffee, provisions, cattle,

* These expressions led to an examination of the supplies furnished to these
345 slaves by Mr. Colville, as stated by him at page 24 of his evidence.
They are as follows : — viz. clothing of all kinds for the slaves, and medicines,
which cost in England £238. The only food supplied to them thence consisted
of herrings, which cost £314. The remaining supplies from Europe consisted
either of articles for the use of the white agents, as flour, Irish beef and pork,
or for the use of the plantation, as wood hoops, coals, bricks, tools, &c., amount-
ing to £700 or £800. The Island supplies averaged annually about £2600,
consisting of salaries to agents, and other contingent expenses, including medical
attendance, probably about £70 or £80, and very little or no provisions for the
slaves. The great mass of their food, therefore, must have been the production
of their own labour in their grounds.

2 c •

194 West Indian Distress.

&c., on the part of the planters universally, would not this depressing
surplus be at once got rid of? Cuba and Brazil cannot enter into com-
petition with him or his fellow-planters in the home market. If the
planters were to resolve on lessening their sugar by one-fourth, the
object they are now pursuing would be effected at once, without the
interference of Parliament, and without any evil either to the planter
or the slave, except diminished commissions to consignees be regarded
as an evil.

Mr. Colville says (274), he thinks that Cuba and Brazil produce
sugar cheaper than Jamaica, because the slave trade supplies them
with labourers at less cost. But if Mr. Colville's two estates had pos-
sessed, in the course of the last seven years, from 84 to 168 more
labourers than they now have, and had these been but treated and fed
as well as the free negroes, the Maroons, in their vicinity, would he
have had the same cause to complain ?

Mr. Colville speaks of the large annual amount of what he gives in al-
lowances to the young and to the old on his estates (275). We have seen
what these amount to ; — a few herrings and a little cheap clothing n
the year, with a little medicine and medical attendance. He does not
feed his slaves. They feed themselves and families from their own
grounds solely, and by their own labour on Sundays, and twenty-six
days besides. See his own answer (42 1 ).

Mr. Colville proposes to cure West India distress by a larger bounty
(294). But would not a reduction of the quantity of sugar grown, at
once, and more effectually, produce the same result? The bounty
is already 5*. or 65. But this, he thinks, is not enough. He demands 10«.
or 125. more. But even this large increase would not place Jamaica
on an equality with Demerara and Trinidad, any more than if they
retain only the present rate of bounty.

The effect of this proposal would be to raise the bounty from 5s. or
6s., which it is at present, to 14*. or 15*. ; and as this would raise to
that extent the price of the exported surplus, and there cannot be two
prices of one and the same article in the same market, the effect would
be a rise, to precisely the same extent, on all sugar consumed at home.
The tax on the public, the British consumer, therefore, for this bounty,
and independently of it, would be, on 4,400,000 cwt. nearly £3,000,000
annually, which is probably three to four times as much as the whole
actual income of all the sugar planters of the West Indies ; and this
to be paid annually, by a reluctant and impoverished people, for up-
holding and infinitely aggravating the evils and the crime of that
slavery they detest. Will they submit to this ? The thing seems
impossible. Nay, when their eyes are fully open, will they even sub-
mit to the million and upwards they now pay? And is this Mr. Col-
ville's only remedy ? He and his West Indian friends may at least first
try to cut off a fifth or fourth of the present supply of this deathful
article, and thus both benefit themselves and spare the lives of their
poor slaves. Even their charging commission only on the short price
would at once either leave three per cent, in the pocket of the planter,
OX cause a reduction of 9d. in the_price of every cwt. of sugar.

West Indian Distress. 195

Would not Mr. Colville admit that the residence of a proprietor on
his own estate might save him a large sum in attorneys and managers,
and would also relieve him of the cost of his establishment in Europe?
And might he not attend better in this case to his own affairs, and to
the health and comfort of his slaves ? The small estates, he says, are
worse off than the large ; but are these items of expense of no moment,
be the estate large or small? (323, 324).

There is sufficient pasture land, he admits (329 — 341), in Jamaica, yet
still beef, pork, and butter are brought from England. In fact, pasture
is little thought of there to raise food, but chiefly to supply cattle for
drawing canes to the mill, or sugar to the wharf. Pasture lands,
he says, are cheap. On this cheap land, why not raise that beef, pork,
and butter, which is imported at such cost from England and the
United States ?

THOMAS PHILLPOTTS, ESQ.

Mr. Phillpotts appears to have been resident in Jamaica for 30 years,
chiefly as an overseer or manager ; at least it does not appear that at
so recent a date as 1826 he was himself the proprietor of any planta-
tions, being then possessed of only 18 slaves.

A sugar estate, says this witness (485), can be converted to no other
object of profitable cultivation. But suppose the soil of a sugar estate
is fertile, yielding from one to two hogsheads an acre from plant canes,
and that without moxiure, will Mr. Phillpotts venture to affirm that it
would be capable of yielding nothing else, neither coffee, nor cotton,
nor corn, nor yams, nor grass, nor provisions ? Exhausted lands,
whether exhausted by canes or by any other produce, will of course
yield little or nothing of any article. But will not good land yield al-
most every other species of produce with less of exhaustion than it will
yield sugar ? Sugar, it is admitted by this very witness, is one of the
most exhausting of all crops ; but will no length of fallow restore it ?

If pasture land is to be bought so cheap as Mr. Phillpotts affirms
(486, &c.), namely, as low as 14 or 15 shillings an acre, would not the
cattle, and the beef, and the butter, and the hides reared upon it be
proportionably cheap ? Would not fair cane land, capable of yielding
one to two hogsheads an acre, bear very good guinea grass, or cotton,
or even coffee ? Many West Indian estates of fertile soil have been
converted into sugar estates, after having for many years borne coffee.
Is it meant to be affirmed that one, or two, or three, or four sugar
crops, would make it impossible for that same soil to revert to coffee
again ? Does not Mr. Phillpotts know that many of the mimerous
coffee estates planted in Jamaica since 1793 had formerly grown
sugar, or indigo, or cotton, and had been actually thrown out of the
culture of these articles during the preceding twenty or thirty years ?
And will he venture to say that there is any one parish of Jamaica,
whether " moist" or " dry," "hot" or " cold," in which both sugar and
coffee may not be, and even are not, grown ? Is not the whole of De-
merara uniformly both hot and moist ? And does not sugar grow there
on many scores of estates, without manure; which, as coffee estates,

196 West Indian Distress.

had till recently been most productive ? Besides, has he never seen
corn growing in cane fields, and Guinea grass in the intervals of them ?

JOHN INNES, ESQ.

This gentleman is a planter of Demerara, and also of Berbice.

If his statement as to the cost of rearing slaves in these colonies be
correct (585), and it is that a Creole slave, by the time he attains the
age of 14 years, costs the proprietor £226. 14s. lOd. sterling, then
the whole system from first to last is nothing more than sheer and
egregious folly. Slavery must have ceased long ago, were all that
this witness says true. If a slave at 14 costs £226. 14*. lOd. sterling,
what part of that rnoney can ever be replaced ? But the very fact of the
expense of rearing such a slave would at once explain the non-increase
of population in the two Colonies with which he is connected, as well as
the appalling consumption of human life which, contrary to the course
of human nature, takes place in them. All such statements and cal-
culations are at once convicted of exaggeration. No man would rear
slaves on such terms.

WILLIAM ROBERT KEITH DOUGLAS, ESQ., M. P.

Mr. Douglas is proprietor of about 700 or 800 slaves in Tobago : he
has never himself visited the West Indies.

It seems most surprising that Mr. Douglas, with all his means of in-
formation, should not have been able to give more precise information
with respect to the population of Tobago (628). The first year of any
correct return from that island was for December, 1819. It then was
found by the Registry that the relative proportion of the sexes was
such as gave the best hope of the favourable progress of population.
The numbers were, at the close of that year, according to the Parlia-
mentary document, No. 424 of 1824, 7633 males and 7837 females ;
in all, 15,470.

From that time, at least, the slave population, if properly fed and
treated, might have been expected to increase rapidly. But what has
been the fact ?

By the Registry for 1829 (No. 674 of 1830), the latest we have, the
numbers were as follows : — 5872 males and 6684 females : in all,
12,556; showing not only no increase, but a large decrease of 2914
slaves, to which must be added 134 slaves imported during that time,
over and above those exported (No. 353 of 1826) ; thus making the
whole decrease 3048. From this amount, however, there are to be de-
ducted the manumissions effected in the above ten years. The only
ofiicial returns of these are to the end of 1825, and they make the
number 232 (No. 89 of 1823, and No. 353 of 1826). In 1829 there
are said to have been 16 manumissions ; and if the same number took
place in each of the three intermediate years, 1826, 1827, and 1828,
the whole number manumitted in the ten years will amount to 296.
These, being deducted from 3048, leave a real actual decrease, by death,
in ten years, of 2752 ; being within fifty of one-fifth part of the whole

West Indian Distress. 197

average population of those ten years, namely, about 14,000. It might
be proved, by official documents, that during the very same period the
free Negroes of Trinidad, the free Maroon Negroes of Jamaica, and the
free population of the Mauritius, had increased at the rate of two and a
half per cent, per annum ; and that in the colonies of Grenada, Deme-
rara, and Berbice, the free black and coloured class had increased at
the rate of three per cent, per annum ; while the slaves of Tobago had
been decreasing at the rate of two per cent, per annum. Here then it
appears that although this item of heavy loss, incurred by the planters
of Tobago, is wholly left out of view by Mr. Douglas, in his estimate
of the sources of their distress, it is most clearly one which, though
not even remotely glanced at by him, yet, on the very principle on
which he contends for the distressing effect of the Foreign slave-trade,
must have had a preponderating influence on the whole question which
he affects to discuss, namely, the causes of the present distress of the
West India planters.

The mere subtraction of 2752 labourers from the small population of
Tobago, being a fifth of the whole, whether we regard it simply as a
diminution of capital to that amount, or as enhancing the average
cost of the sugar, or as lessening the effective means of production ;
must far outweigh in importance, in forming any just estimate of the
causes of that distress, all the others he has specified, and must, un-
questionably, at least outweigh all that can be attributed to the Foreign
slave trade.

This, however, is only a small part of the case. It is plain that had
the 15,470 slaves existing in Tobago on the 31st Dec, 1819, increased
at the same rate with the free in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Mauritius, —
to say nothing of those of Grenada, Demerara, and Berbice— (and, the
climates being alike in all, they must have done so had they been
equally well fed and equally well pffin other respects), their number on the
31st Dec, 1829, instead of being reduced to 12,556, would have groztm
to 19,338 ; making an actual addition of 7218 in that time to their
labouring population : and this, independently of all the increased
production which would have resulted from the progressively growing
amount of effective labour, and which would have been at this time
sixty per cent, more than it actually is.

Had Mr. Douglas looked at the Registry returns on the table
of the House of Commons, he would have saved himself and the com-
mittee much unnecessary trouble, for he would have seen at once that
in all the colonies in the West Indies, excepting three, the females ex-
ceeded the males in the usual and natural proportion, — that in one
colony, namely, Trinidad, they are now nearly equal, — and that in two
only, Demerara and Berbice, more particularly the former, is there
any material excess of males over females.

As to many other points in the evidence of Mr. Douglas respecting
freights, non-intercourse with continental markets, &c., it is obvious
and he himself is forced to admit it, that the evils arise from the West
Indians alone, and from the restrictions which they and their con-
signees have mutually and voluntarily chosen to institute : and that by

198 West Indian Distress.

themselves, and themselves alone, can they be obviated. These are
regulated, as he himself also admits, not by law, but by what he
chooses to call " the colonial system" (640) ; to which, when we add
the effect of the bounty in preventing the direct transmission of their
produce to continental Europe, or of its sale or barter in return for
articles imported from the United States, a great part of their whole
ground of complaint is at once obviated, or traced to their own free
choice, and therefore can form no ground of claim for parliamentary
interference or indemnity.

Equally out of place is the complaint of this gentleman, arising from
the alleged insecurity of slavery, produced by the popular feeling in this
country on the subject (656). To obviate that feeling is wholly im-
possible. It is beyond the competence even of Parliament. The
determination of the public to extinguish slavery may be resisted for a
time, but it cannot be overcome. Nothing, however, can be less true
than that this circumstance has operated, or can operate, to depress
the price of colonial produce. It may, without doubt, affect the price
of estates, and of slaves, in the market; but it has no influence, and
can have none, either on the quantity or the price of produce. The
quantity it certainly has not lessened ; on the contrary, it is now
as great as ever. And it is quantity, the West Indians themselves
admit, which does and must regulate price. The low price of sugar is
by their own account the great grievance under which they labour. But
that is an evil to which anti-slavery projects have in no respect con-
tributed. It arises from an excess of that very sugar cultivation which
the authors of those projects hold to be a great calamity as it respects
the slaves, and which they would gladly see lessened. It is therefore
wholly to mistake the question at issue, and completely to mistake
the cause and the remedy of this distress, as arising from low prices,
to refer to the prevalent feeling of hostility to slavery in this country
as connected in any degree either with that depression or with its re-
moval.

The enormous gains of consignees, as against the planters, are
here (670) plainly admitted by Mr. K. Douglas ; but he extenuates
if he does not defend the arrangement, as being no more than a com-
pensation for the risks they run. But what, after all, is this but evading
the law forbidding usury ? Without meaning to defend that law; still
it is plainly proved, by the long-established and universal prevalence of
such a system, what are the peculiar and well understood hazards of
West India speculation. Every man embarking in it must have had
his eyes open to its risks ; and he, doubtless, must have fully intended
to take ample security against them. But he has no more claim to be
relieved from the effects of a failure of his unwarranted and too san-
guine hopes than a purchaser of lottery tickets who has drawn only
blanks, or a man who has lost his last stake at Rouge et Noir.

Ail that follows, on the part of Mr. K. Douglas, only goes to confirm
what has been said above of the enormous gains of the consignee as
founded on the long known, and well appreciated, hazards of West
India speculation.

West Indian Distress. 199

SIMON TAYLOR, ESQ.

This witness is a merchant of Jamaica, and an extensive attorney for
plantations in that island, where he has resided twelve years, namely
from 1819 to 1831. He directed thirty estates cultivated by 7000 or
8000 slaves ; and is himself a proprietor.

The present distress is owing, he says (688), to low prices, arising
from distrust about emancipation, caused by clamour at home. But
how could that produce low prices, unless indeed its tendency were to
increase quantity ?

It would seem from Mr. Taylor's evidence (709) that cattle are not
thought of in Jamaica, but for sugar cultivation. If beef were cheap-
ened would it not be eaten ? Would not the slaves thrive on it better
than on their present meagre diet, plantains and herrings ? Cattle
abound in Cuba and Brazil, and the slaves are fed with them cheaply.

This gentleman superintending 30 estates and 7000 or 8000 slaves, re-
siding for the last 12 years in Jamaica, testifies (731) that nothing which
had passed in England, in regard to Emancipation, had materially
altered, even down to 1831, the slave's habits, or lessened his labour.
How then can it have affected either quantities or prices of produce ?
This is a flat contradiction to some of the other witnesses, by one just
arrived from the spot after a long residence of 12 years.

There is an estate for example in this district, St. Thomas in the East
called Lyssons. In March 1820 there were upon it 516 slaves. In
March 1824 there were only 476, being a decrease of 40 in four years,
or ten in a year, just 2 per cent, per annum. What has caused this
heavy loss, while the Maroons, the free Negroes near Lyssons, increase
at the rate of 2^ per cent, per annum ? Had the increase been the
same on this estate of Lyssons, instead of having only 476 slaves in
March 1824, in the four intervening years from March 1820 the 576
slaves would have grown to 633; being 157 above the number of 476
existing in 1821.

Would not the natural increase of 157 slaves, above the present
stock, have of itself counteracted the effect of the foreign slave trade
and many other drawbacks of which he complains ? The value of this
wasted capital at £50 a slave is £7850, besides all the intermediate
profits that would have arisen from the labours of the growing gang.

The following table, taken from authentic records, of the increase
and decrease of a number of estates in the parish with which Mr.
Taylor is chiefly connected, St, Thomas in the East, and during the
very years he was in Jamaica, and some of which Mr, Taylor may him-
self have managed, is submitted to the public. Can Mr. Taylor
explain the causes of the difference of mortality there exhibited on
sugar and coffee estates ; or that between the mortality of the slaves
on both, and the increase of the Maroons in the adjoining district, as it
appears in this correct and authentic document? The general result
is that in 12 years the decrease on the Sugar Estates is 12§ per
cent., while on the Coffee Estates there is, in the same period, an
increase of 1-^'^ per cent., and among the Maroons of 30| per cent ?

200 Parish of St. Thomas in the East — Plantain-Garden-River
District — Susar Estates.

_c

a

Mm

o»

a-a

3£!

^

S

3

dS

^S'

>,

>>

ESTATES.

OWNERS.

xi=

Ǥ

is

■a j;

s!3

1° ■

Si! 2

CJ

a

>,'-i

■"d

s>;

—

"m

T3 .?^

'So

'5i

■v.^

u

"3 b=^

ti

«

Pi

Pi

<t

rt

"Is

W

0

Golden Grove

A. Archdeckne . . .

761

659

10

7

8

206

303

Chiswick . . .

J. and T. Burton . .

201

181

32

1

27

78

Winchester . .

T. Cussans ....

344

327

108

125

Amity Hall . .

Heirs of T. Cussans .

299

228

4

4

5

65

131

Stoakeshall , ,

Heirs of A. Donaldson

207

178

2

2

55

84

Rhine ....

Sir E. H. East, Bart. .

19,5

173

26

2

3

68

112

Duckenfield . .

Priscilla Franks . . .

341

376

76

5

4

113

145

Dalvey . . , .

Sir A. Grant, Bart. . .

173

166

8

4

1

64

74

Plaintain Garden

River . . .

Harvey and Co. . . .

226

227

22

3

1

75

92

Friendship . .

Lambie and Co. . . .

184

173

58

69

Hordley . . .

Heirs of M. G. Lewis .

282

247

1

70

104

Arcadia. . . .

R. Logan

133

103

30

29

89

Whelersfield . .

T. W. Milner . . .

286

297

112

101

Potosi ....

J. M'Queen ....

258

197

69

130

Philipsfield . .

N.Phillips . . . .

204

164

3

2

49

90

Pleasant Hall . .

Ditto

270

228

2

2

68

106

Holland. . , .

G.W.Taylor . . .

398

634

1

236

199

Total

4972

4558

213

31

27

1472

2032

Coffee Estates in the same District.

3

c

c

1-,
3

Mi

a

T3 .

It

> a

S

i2

ESTATES.

OWNERS.

f^3

.2

r

.a

J2 a

13"".

c

a

Bachelor's Hal

1 , A. Archdeckne . . .

140

135

1

7

43

47

Green-Castle

. J.Kelly

267

245

2

88

108

House Hill

. Heirs of J. Kelly . .

142

136

47

53

Barracks .

. S. Francis . . . . .

55

73

35

17

32

Newington

.

160

174

1

2

70

57

Island Head

. Elmslie

61

127

69

3

3

46

43

Greenfield .

. E.M'Indoe ....

80

80

1

1

2

25

23

Moffatt, &c.

. K. M'Pherson . . .

109

240

115

4

71

51

Wakefield, &c

. . P. M'Farlane . . .

41

62

44

4

22

41

Ben Lomond

. . T.Ross

111

130

50

30

New Monklan

d . J.Telfair

188

222

3

100

69

Old Monkland

100

93

26

33

Newfield .

. . Thompson

Total

100

104

2

35

33

1554

1821

267

5

27

640

629

Return of Maro

ons.

STATIONS,

Number

in

1817.

Number

in

1820.

Number

in

1823.

Number

in

1826.

Number

in

1829.

in
11.

ftoJO.

ncrease by birth
ecrease bydeath,
ion of privi-
in the 12 years.

Is

Charlestown .

316

325

367

361

385

Moore Town .
Scot's Hall . ,

402

77

410

67

426
68

540

67

550

86

2aj

•-S.S

fill

Accompong . .

236

298

303

306

313

^s

..^^

West Indian Distress. 201

These tables, first published in the Christian Record of Jamaica,
No. 8, may be verified by a reference to the registered returns, in the
Colonial Registry Ofiice, in this country.

An equally striking document has recently appeared in the same work,
No. 2. (New series.) It gives a similar and equally correct statement,
taken from the official registry, of the progress of population on
seventy-six sugar estates in the parish of Hanover in Jamaica, during
the twelve years from 1817 to 1829. On these estates, the slaves
were remarkably well proportioned, the males in 1817 being 9056,
and the females 9204 : together 18,260. In these twelve years, the
births were 5345, the deaths 6739, being a decrease by deaths over
births of 1394.

The births per annum were rather less than one in forty of the
population, and the deaths one in 32. The rate of births among the
free in America and Europe is usually one birth in from seventeen
to twenty of the population, and the deaths one in about forty.

The decrease by deaths over births on these estates was, in the twelve
years, T-| per cent. ; and it is remarkable that, in the last six years of
that period, the rate of decrease is greater than in the first six years.
The rate of decrease from 1817 to 1823 was 3f per cent. ; but from
1823 to 1829 a little more than 4| per cent., making 7| per cent, in
the whole. Hanover v/as one of the recently disturbed parishes.

These 18,260 slaves were living at the time in the vicinity of the
Maroons, Avho increased during the same twelve years at the rate of
30 per cent. Had their increase kept pace with that of the Maroons,
not only would the diminution of life to the extent of 1394 have been
saved, ]3nt 5478 human beings would have been added to the number,
so as to make the population of these estates, in 1829, 23,738. The
actual population of them in that year was 17,572 ; but, deducting
those added in the twelve years by purchase, it was only 16,866,
making a difference in that one parish, on these seventy-six estates,
as compared with the Maroons, of 6872, or about 37 per cent.

There is no census in Jamaica of the freed population ; but there
cannot exist a doubt that it v/ould furnish, if accurately taken, a cri-
terion no less decisive of the comparative destructiveness of slavery,
than the case of the Maroons.

But there is another view which has been taken of this subject by
a correspondent, and which we shall here insert in corroboration of
our own. We can afford room only for the substance of his commu-
nication, which is as follows : —

In the late attempt to prove that the continuance of the slave-trade by fo-
reigners has been the cause of the present distress of the British planters, the
witnesses state that the price of newly imported slaves is from 220 to 250 dollars,
that is £48 to £55 sterling, and for Mandingo slaves 300 dollars or £65 — a
price very much higher than is now given for slaves in the West Indies, with the
exception of Guiana and Trinidad : hence it is evident that with this exception
a British planter wishing to extend his cultivation might be supplied with
slaves on cheaper terms than those on which Brazil and Cuba are now supplied,
and the alleged greater efficiency of the slaves they bring from the ships would
be fur more than counterbalanced by their want of skill, and llieir inaptitude to

2 D

202 West Indian Dish-ess.

labour, and still more by the great and admitted mortality which takes place
on their first importation.

These facts of the comparative prices of slaves would of themselves be con-
clusive ; but happily we have farther proof. This is not the first time that the
British Colonial system has been unable to contend with better systems.
Indigo has been entirely, and cotton very nearly, driven out of cultivation in
the West India Colonies, but not in any case by the slave trade of other coun-
tries, but either by free labour, or by the increase of natural population.

The increased cultivation of cotton in the United States throws a remarkable
light on this subject; for that increase has arisen not from importation, but
from the natural growth of population. The slaves in the United States in
1810 were 1,191,364, and, as they appear to have been then increasing at the
rate of 30,000 per annum, their numbers in 1808 (the time when the African
slave-trade was abolished both in that country and in Great Britain) may be taken
at about 1,130,000. In 1830, however, they amounted, by actual census, to
2,010,436.

That this vast difference arose from natural increase is undoubted ; for
we hear nothing said of an African slave-trade, and the slave-breeders of Vir-
ginia would watch the foreign importation of slaves into the southern states with
as much care as the corn growers of Norfolk would watch an importa-
tion of foreign corn into Lancashire. Besides, the writers in the United States
who so deeply lament the increase of the slave population, never mention slave
trading as one of the causes of that increase.

The result of this great increase in the slave population has been a still greater
increase in the growth, and reduction in the price, of cotton. I have not seen
any estimate of the whole growth of cotton in the United States, about the time
of the Peace, when the foreign slave-trade was renewed ; but the comparative
imports into Great Britain will form a pretty fair criterion, being in the latter
period considerably more than threefold what they were in the former. The
price has undergone a corresponding change ; for we find it has fallen from an
average of Is. 6ld. in the years 1815 to 1819, to 6^d. per lb; in 1827 to 1831.

The imports of cotton from America into Great Britain, in the above first
five years, averaged 165,046 bales annually, and in the last five years 556,307
bales.

In the Brazils, where slave-trading has been extensively carried on, they have
only increased their growth of cotton about 25 per cent., the whole increase not
being one-twentieth part of that of the United States. The average imports,
chence, of the first five years into Great Britain was 128,472 bales, and in the
last five only 161,471.

I have seen no authentic account of the slave population in the West Indies,
after the abolition of the slave trade, earlier than 1818, when it was 746,651. If
the decrease of the ten preceding years had been at the same rate as the suc-
ceeding six years, the numbers in 1808 would have been about 793,271 ; but,
from the greater loss of slave life nearer the time of importation, it may very
safely be assumed that they exceeded 800,000 ; we will take this to have been
the amount in 1808.

Now, if 1,130,000 slaves in the United States have increased between 1808
and 1830 to 2,010,436; at the same rate these 800,000 would have increased
to 1,423,,317. Instead of which, by the latest accounts, the slave population of
the West Indies noiu is only 678,527, being less than it ought to have been,
had it increased as in America, by 744,793.

Notwithstanding the great and gradual decrease which has taken place in
our slave population, our import of sugar from the West India Colonies re-
mains very nearly what it was in 1814. In that year it was 1-90,000 tons, and
in 1830 185,000 tons.

The Brazilians had to contend with the Americans in the growth of cotton,
5nd in this article they increased only 25 per cent.; whilst in sugar, where they

West Indian Distress. 203

had to contend with the British, their growth has increased from 30,0GOtons in 1814
to 70,000 tons in 1 830, or 130 per cent., according to Tmeman and Cook's Tables.
Now if their advantages over the British arose from slave-trading, they had just
the same advantage over the Americans in the growth of cotton ; and yet the
Americans, without slave-trading, have very greatly checked the slave-trade of
the Brazils for the growth of cotton ; and, had our slaves increased equally, we
should have done the same with respect to sugar.

We should have had the same advantage over the slave-traders of Brazil as
the Americans have had. Instead of a small decrease on our imports of sugar,
there might have been an increase of more than twice the quantity grown in our
West Indies, and more than three times the increased growth of the slave-trading
colonies since 1814, which, according to Trueman and Cook, amounts in all
only to 110,000 tons. The Americans have more than trebled their growth
of cotton, whilst all the slave-trading sugar growers have only added 110,000
tons, or between 60 and 70 per cent, to their growth of sugar, which in 1814 was
175,000 tons.

We have heard of the enormous extent of the slave trade since the peace in
1814; it has often been estimated in those 18 years at 100,000 per annum. And
the sugar is the principal article of cultivation which these immense numbers of
slaves have produced, and which it appears is only equal to 115,000 tons. What
must have become of these slaves ? A reference has already been made to what
Mr. Jeremie says in his Essays on Slavery, " that swarms of Negro slaves,
equal, at the lowest calculation, to the whole of their original number (70,000),
have been introduced into Martinique ; but that at the end of 15 short years all
their importations had been swept away, and the slave population stands now
much as it did." Mr. M'Donnel, in his evidence before the Committee, also
speaks of the great mortality of the new slaves in the Brazils and Cuba.

Enough, then, has been said to prove the absurdity of supposing that the
Brazils and Cuba have had any advantage, from their importation, over countries
not importing ; and, to prove this, let us suppose that the same system had
been going on in America, where noiu their natural increase is at the rate of
50,000 per annum. If these, instead of having been reared, had been added
by importation, on the estimate of only one half the number imported surviving,
it would of course require 100,000 per annum to be imported, which, at £50
each, would have made £5,000,000 ; whilst the value of their average exports of
cotton to Great Britain cannot have been more than £3,600,000 per annum.
Such a sum would have exceeded the value of the whole exports of their great
staple article. But, if this is absurd, how much more ridiculous is the calcula-
tion of one of the witnesses (Mr. Innes, see supra p. 196) that it costs
£226. 14s, lOd. sterling to raise a child to fourteen years ! If this were true,
then it must have cost the Americans more than £11,000,000 per annum to
raise the present annual addition to their slave population.

If, then, it has now been made clear that the advantage of the Brazilian and
Cuba sugar growers is not in slave trading, it will be easy to show in what it
does consist : namely, in the residence of the foreign and the non-residence of the
British planters ; in the enormous interest paid in various ways to mortgagees in
this country, almost all estates being mortgaged ; and in the decrease of our own
slave population, when it ought to have increased. If they were rid of these
disadvantages, and Negro population were to increase, as they would, if free, at
the rate of 2| per cent, per annum, besides saving the loss of life which is now
going on, there can be no doubt of their competing with Brazil and Cuba as
successfully in the growth of sugar, as the Americans, by means of the natural
increase of their Negro population, are doing in the growth of cotton.

But it may be said that, if slaves increased so fast, they would fall in price ;
if they did fall in price, land must, in consequence of an increased population,
rise in value; hence this would be a transfer of value from the slaves to the land
— from the worst and most uncertain tenure to tlie very best.

204 West India Distress.

Again : it may be said that, in some of the islands, there will not be land
enough for them to cultivate ; of course, when tliat is the case, slavery must,
at length, cease of itself, and the people must emigi'ate, in search of employment.
But men are so attached to their native places that they would sooner give a
high rent for land than leave the place of their birth : thence the planters, bemg
the owners of tlie soil, would be great gainers even by such an increase of popu-
lation as would induce them to give their slaves their freedom.

In short, the planters should adopt those means of relief which are evidently
within their own power, such as residing on their own properties ; managing their
own concerns ; and increasing their labouring population ; and, having thus done
what they could for themselves, they might then seek such help from government
as would be adapted to their wants. Instead of which, they are desiring, by
means of an increased drawback on sugar exported, to raise the price of sugar so
as to add one or two millions more to the 1,000,000 or 1,200,000 which are now
paid to them in that shape, and which would increase and not lessen the oppres-
sion of the slave.

Surely no such enormous sums will be suffered to be wasted on an attempt to
bolster up a system which, independently of its deep guilt, cannot stand.

There are three causes for the present distress : —

1. Debts contracted, paying, in some shape, a very high rate of interest.

2. The expense of agency in consequence of the non-residence of the planters.

3. The dreadful waste of Negro life.

No remedy can of course be effectual without having a direct reference to these
causes of distress.

The amount of capital borrowed, or the rate which on an average it costs the
planters, could not be easily ascertained ; but if we assume the amount at
£15,000,000, and that the planters are paying on that sum 10 per cent, more
than the rate at which the government could borrow it, and of course afford to
lend it to them, — if this were lent by government, and equitably divided amongst
the planters, this one item would be a saving of a million and a half per annum.
The residence of the planters would save about a million more. And if the planters
would, at the same time, co-operate with the government in those measures
which, by freeing the slaves, would put an end to the waste of human life, and
add rapidly to the Negro population, as freedom adds to it in all parts of the
world, the gain to them would be immense in a variety of ways.

This change in the condition of the slaves would probably bring the produc-
tion of the West Indies for a time within the consumption of the mother country,
and thus render the bounty on exportation nugatory. But this bounty should at
any rate cease, and also all extra duty on East India sugar, which, with the
increasing number of slaves, would keep in check any great advance on the price
of sugar : and, whilst such advanced price did continue, it would be cheerfully
borne by the country, from a conviction that it would be but temporary, and
would ultimately produce a supply at such a price as would more effectually
destroy the slave trade for the growth of sugar than has been done by the
Americans for the growth of cotton. And all these advantages to the planters
would be obtained without any cost whatever to the country.

In any case, and whether this reasoning be just or otherwise, slavery must
inevitably cease. Its abominations can no longer be endured by this country.

We conclude, with recommending these considerations to our Colonists gene-
rally, and with calling the attention of Parliament and the public to the appalling
fact of the comparatively enormous waste of human life produced from year to
year, by British slavery, which so clearly appears in the preceding pages ; a sub-
ject to which we intend soon again to recur.

rriiUed by S. EagLitci-, Jun., 14, Bartholome-.v Close, LoiKlun.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 98.] JULY, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 8.

COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE COLONIAL SECRETARY OF
STATE AND THE COLONIES; viz., 1. Constitution of Trinidad; 2.
Liberation of Forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves; 3. Persecution of Samuel
Swinej/, a Jamaica Slave ; 4. Female Flogging in Jamaica; .5. Female Flog-
ging, SfC, in Bahamas : 6. Slave Insurrection ; 7. Report of the Bishop of
Jamaica; 8. Free Black and Coloured classes, changes in their Civil Condition;
9. The Protection given to Slaves in Jamaica by Law Illustrated.

1. Constitution of Trinidad.

In a parliamentary paper of the present year, 1832, No. 212, some
important communications between the Secretary of State and the
local Government of Trinidad have recently appeared. A great part
of them refers to the finances and expenditure of the Colony, and
therefore will not require any detailed analysis from us. In the course
of the correspondence however there occur various incidental obser-
vations, which merit particular notice, as marking the general cha-
racter of the policy of his Majesty's Government in regard to the Slave
Colonies ; and to these we shall take occasion briefly to advert.

One regulation laid down by Lord Goderich in his despatch of the
27th of May, 1831, is in this view highly important. It is this:
" Henceforth every person entering into the public service in Tri-
nidad must be previously divested of property in plantations within
the Colony, or in agricultural slaves, wherever situated ; and every
judicial and legal officer of the Crown, except the judicial assessors
in the criminal court, must, though not for the first time taking office
in the Colony, divest themselves of such property within two years from
the date of the receipt of this despatch." We could have wished that
they had been equally debarred from holding domestic slaves. The
sound policy of such a restriction in this case also is equally unques-
tionable.

A discussion of considerable moment is incidentally raised, in the
course of the same despatch, respecting the political constitution
which ought to be given to Trinidad. The colonists had peti-
tioned " for such a constitution as would afford the colonists an ef-
fectual control over the taxation and expenditure to which they are
called to contribute ;" and they refer to the case of Canada as justi-
fying their application. Lord Goderich says in reply, " I avow, with-
out reserve, my opinion that justice and sound policy dictate the
extension of such a form of government to every Colony fitted for its
reception." There is between Canada and Trinidad, however, one all-
important distinction, to which the petitioners do not allude.

" Their silence cannot have arisen from any ignorance of the importance
which has been and is attached to that distinction in this country, and is, I pre-
sume, rather to be attributed to their conscious inability to repel the objection

VOL. V. 2 E

206 Constitution of Trinidad.

by sound argument. In Trinidad a large majority of the whole population are
slaves. In Canada slavery is not only unknown in practice, but prohibited by
law.

" The petitioners ascribe all the evils of which they complain to a system of
government ' under which laws are made by those who are to govern, and not
by those who are to obey them,' and to the absence of ' any control (by means
of election) vested in that body for whose benefit laws are made.' I acknow-
ledge and respect the justice of the principle assumed and inculcated in these
expressions. I have not any disposition to deny that it is highly conducive, if
not essential, to the enactment of good laws, that the lawgiver should have a
general identity of interest with those for whom he legislates, and an habitual
sympathy with their feelings. I dissent from the petitioners merely in the appli-
cation which they make of these general truths. Theirs is a society in which
the great mass of the people to be governed are slaves, and their proposal is, that
the laws should be made by a body composed of and elected by slave proprietors.
Bringing this plan to the test of those general principles which I have already
quoted in their own words, it is to be enquired how such a scheme would pro-
vide for that identity of interest which they rightly think ought to subsist between
the legislature and the subject.

" The condition of slavery is, that the remuneration of the labourer is mea-
sured not by the value of his services, but by the amount of hj^ indispensable
wants ; his interest, therefore, is to do the smallest possible amount of work, and
to consume at his owner's expense the greatest possible amount of food, clothing,
and other necessaries. The interest of the owner, on the other hand, is pre-
cisely the reverse ; it is, that the greatest possible amount of labour should be
obtained at the least expenditure which is compatible with the preservation of the
labourer. The interest of the slave consists in the acquisition of his freedom at
the earliest possible period, and at the lowest possible price. It is the interest
of the owner to protract the servitude of his slaves, and to enhance to the utmost
degree the price of freedom. The slave has a strong and constant motive for de-
siring the abolition of those laws or customs by which his own class in society
are degraded ; the owner has an equally powerful motive for maintaining the
exclusive privileges of the favoured class to which he belongs. I add (not with-
out reluctance) that the general diffusion of religious knowledge and education is
the highest interest of the slave, because it would prepare him for the equal parti-
cipation of all civil rights, and enable him 'to assert that claim with effect. For
the same reason, the owner has an interest in obstructing the advance of know-
ledge amongst this part of the population.

" It will of course be replied that the oppositions of interest to which I have
adverted are apparent only, and have no real existence ; and that all men of
large and liberal minds will perceive that in promoting the comforts, the manu-
mission, and the moral improvement of their slaves, they are really advancing
their own welfare. It is unnecessary to my present argument that I should deny
this assertion ; on the contrary I am most ready to admit that a course of con-
duct dictated by such generous and enlightened views would best coincide with
the permanent interests of those by whom it should be observed. I confine my-
self to the assertion that there exists between the slaves and their proprietors that
palpable, apparent, and immediate contrariety of interests, by which, as all ex-
perience shows, men are habitually guided in their use of power. The proprie-
tary body in Trinidad cannot reasonably regard as any reflection upon them a
distrust which is founded upon the general testimony of history in all countries,
and in every state of society.

" I proceed to apply to the schen)e suggested by the petitioners the second of
those tests of a good legislative constitution on which they rely ; namely, a gene-
ral sympathy of feeling between the lawgiver and the subjects of his laws. They
propose that the legislature shall be chosen exclusively by and from amongst
that class who, as freemen, already possess a proud and all-important distinc-

Constitution of Trinidad. 207

tion : while their laws would be made for a people labouring under the degrada"
tion of personal slavery. The one body are Europeans by birth and descent'
deeply conscious of their superiority over the less civilized inhabitants of the
globe : the other are of African birth or origin, with all the peculiarities, moral
and physical, which distinguish that unfortunate race. In short, society in Tri-
nidad is divided into castes as strongly marked as those of Hindostan ; nor can
any man, who has but an ordinary knowledge of the history and general cha-
racter of mankind, doubt what must be the effect of such distinctions, when, in
addition to their other privileges, the superior race are entrusted with a legislative
authority over the inferior.

" Even had these general principles never been brought to the test of actual
experiment, I should have been disposed to place great reliance upon them. But
the records of this office demonstrate, in the clearest manner, the danger of con-
fiding to the same persons the domestic and the legislative authority over a slave
population. I am unwilling to characterise, by any language of my own, the
slave codes which have grown up in the thirteen West India Colonies possessing
legislative assemblies. Their apologists rest their vindication on the plea that
they have fallen into desuetude, and were originally intended rather to excite a
wholesome terror, than to be strictly executed. It were easy to cite colonial
authorities of the greatest eminence for opinions in reprobation both of the written
and the unwritten law of slavery, expressed in terms much more emphatic than I
am willing, without an evident necessity, to adopt. I gladly admit that, since
the attention of the people of this country has been called to the subject, many
valuable improvements have been made by the legislative assemblies in this code :
yet, at this day, there remain, on the statute books of many of the islands, enact-
ments to which nothing but the feelings of caste could ever have given birth, and
which, in the absence of such feelings, would at once be repealed.

" But experience has proved, not merely what a colonial assembly will enact
on. the subject of slavery, but also what they will refuse to do for the mitigation
and gradual extinction of that state. Without engaging in the invidious task of
contrasting the slave code established in those colonies over which the legislative
powers of the King in Council extends, with the enactments in force in the islands
possessing legislative assemblies, I may assert, without the risk of contradiction,
that the difference is extreme ; and that the slave law of British origin is through-
out distinguished from the other by its closer adherence to the principles of justice
and humanity. Solicitations the most urgent for the adoption of the provisions
of the Orders in Council have been addressed, for eight successive years, to the
Houses of General Assembly in the West Indies by his Majesty, by Parliament,
and by the people of Great Britain. But, on this subject, both entreaty and ad-
monition have been hitherto ineffectual. It would involve a total sacrifice of
consistency, if his Majesty were advised to establish a system of government in
Trinidad, against the consequences of which, throughout the Antilles, it has been
my duty, within the last three months, to remonstrate in terms even yet more
explicit than those which my predecessors in office employed on the same
subject."

" You would entirely misapprehend the motives which dictate the present
despatch, should you suppose it intended to convey a reproach against any class
of society in Trinidad. I advert to the unhappy distinction which alienates the
proprietors from the cultivators of the soil, not as matter of censure, but as
the subject of deep concern. It deprives the Colony of the blessing of free insti-
tutions, and imposes on his Majesty's Government a duty most foreign to their
general inclination and policy in refusing them. I know not how to reconcile
the full enjoyment of civil freedom with the maintenance of domestic slavery.
In a society of which the law or custom recognizes the relation of master and
slave, it is necessary that the most effective security should be taken against the
abuse, not only of the domestic authority of the owner, but of all those powers
with whicli he may be entrusted, either as a magistrate or a legislator. But cx-r

208 Liberation of forfeited Africans and Croivn Slaves.

perience has demonstrated that a colonial assembly are in reality exempt from all
responsibility, and free from all restraint, so long as they fall in with the opinions
of the narrow circle to which the choice of members is confined. It is, therefore,
not in the spirit of reproach or of suspicion, but in deference to the plain rules
of justice, that his Majesty's Government decline to place this irresponsible
power into hands where it would be continually liable to be abused at the ex-
pense of the great body of the people.

" The general conclusion, therefore, to which I arrive on this part of the case
is, that it is the duty of his Majesty's Government to prefer the substance of
freedom to its forms ; and that, however imposing may be the sounds of a Bri-
tish Constitution and of a Legislative Assem.bly, they ought not, under the shelter
of those venerable names, to concur in establishing a form of government de-
ficient in that which forms the elementary principle and the peculiar excellence of
our own — the equal protection of every class of men living beneath its rule.

" There are not wanting other topics upon which the compatibility of a Le-
gislative Assembly in Trinidad with the prosperity of the island, and even with
the general enjoyment of civil liberty itself, might be denied : I refer to the pau-
city of the inhabitants to whom the elective franchise could upon any scheme be
given — to the extraordinary influence which a very few individuals would exer-
cise over the wliole elective body — to the inaptitude of the law, customs, and
privileges of Parliament to the condition of a small colonial society, in which the
few white inhabitants are all connected with or dissociated from each other by
domestic, commercial, or party relations or antipathies — to the absence of any
public opinion, in the sense in which that term is understood in Great Britain,
to control and prevent the abuse of the unlimited power of an assembly — and to
the want of that balance of various interests, amongst the constituent and re-
presentative bodies, which can alone prevent the adoption of partial and oppres-
sive measures. I might readily illustrate, by reference to the recent history of
the smaller colonies, the force and practical importance of the objections which
I have thus noticed to this form of government, when established amongst a
very limited population. So severely has the inconvenience been felt that it has
become necessary to attempt the consolidation of some of the representative as-
semblies into one united body, in order to secure to the members greater freedom
of action, and to their constituents a relief from vexations for which the enjoy-
ment of the elective franchise and an independent legislature has not been found
an equivalent. These, however, are invidious topics, which I gladly pass over
in very general terms, not because they are in themselves unimportant, nor be-
cause they are irrelevant to the present discussion, but because the practical
decisions which I have announced may be sufficiently vindicated without resort-
ing more directly to the aid of arguments which might give pain to some, towards
whom it is at once my inclination and my duty to manifest the utmost possible
tenderness and respect."

It is impossible to laud too highly the just and philosophical views
which have dictated these observations.

2. Liberation of forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves.

A parliamentary paper of the 4th October, 1831, No= 304, contains
copies of reports respecting the state, treatment, employment, or
complete enfranchisement of Africans, condemned under the acts
abolishing the slave trade, since 16th Oct. 1828.

The process of their enfranchisement was cautiously commenced by
Sir George Murray, who, in a circular despatch, addressed to the
governors of the different slave colonies, on the 16th Oct. 1828,
instructed them to apprize all Africans so condemned that they
should " be permitted to live in the colonies precisely on the same

Liberation of forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves. 209

conditions as any other free persons of African birth and descent,"
" so long as their own continued good conduct may render it un-
necessary to resort to any measures of coercion." And certificates
of liberty were ordered to be given to all " who should either have
served out their apprenticeship, or who, not being apprenticed, should
be reported capable of earning their own subsistence ; and that none
should hereafter be apprenticed who were not incapable of maintain-
ing themselves by their own labour."

In compliance with these instructions, a considerable number of
these Africans have been liberated in many of the colonies ; and the
accounts hitherto received of their conduct, in the enjoyment of their
liberty, have been of the most satisfactory kind. We regret, however,
that more distinct reports have not been received from all the co-
lonies, and especially from the Mauritius and the Cape of Good
Hope, where,,, no less than in the West Indies, the number of such
persons was very considerable.* The silence, however, of the local
authorities on the subject may be considered, in conjunction with the
testimony of Viscount Goderich, noticed hereafter, as indicating the
same favourable result which has accompanied the measure in the
various colonies from which reports have been received.

In Antigua, the number set free in the month of December, 1829,
was upwards of 300. The latest account given of their conduct is
contained in a despatch of Sir Patrick Ross, dated 25th May,
1829 ; in which he says that it affords him much satisfaction to
have the honour of reporting that during a period of five months,
which has expired since they were set at large, I have not received a
single complaint against them ; nor has one of them been committed
by a magistrate for the most trifling offence. There has not, to my
knowledge, been any application from them on the score of poverty,
and they appear to be in general industriously occupied in providing
for their own livelihood."

That their conduct continued to be equally praiseworthy, to a
much later period, may be assumed from the fact that, on the 17th
August, 1831, Viscount Howick stated in the House of Commons
his entire satisfaction with the result of this experiment, and the
encouragement he had thence derived to proceed to the emancipa-
tion of all slaves belonging to the crown in every colony where such
were to be found. (Reporter, vol. iv. No. 89, p. 453.)

We need not pursue farther the subject of the apprenticed Africans,
who appear to have been completely enfranchised in all the West In-
dian colonies, as well as in Antigua, to the number of at least 1000 or
1500 more, and that without any inconvenience either to the Africans
themselves, or to the communities of which they form a part. Indeed,
the complete success of the experiment is stated by Lord Goderich in a
circular despatch to the governors of slave colonies, dated r2th
March, 1831, to have been his inducement for proceeding to eman-
cipate all the slaves belonging to the crown in all the colonies.

* The uniform good conduct of the many thousand persons of this descrip-
tion liberated, from the first moment of their importation, at Sierra Leone is
already matter of history. See Reporter, vol. iii. No. 59.

210 Liberation of forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves.

This despatch is contained in a parliamentary paper, printed by
order of the House of Commons, on the 6th October, 1831, num-
bered 305, and is as follows : —

" His Majesty's Government have had under their serious consideration the
circumstance that, in several of his Majesty's possessions abroad, there are Ne-
groes held in slavery as the property of the crown. The King's Government have
felt it their duty humbly to represent to his Majesty that this is a species of pro-
perty which many considerations concur to recommend that the crown should
forthwith relinquish ; and his Majesty has been graciously pleased to direct that
measures should be taken accordingly for releasing these Negroes.

" From all the enquiries which I have been enabled to make, I am not led to
apprehend that any practical inconvenience will arise, either to these persons
themselves or to the colonial communities of which they are a part, from their
immediate enfranchisement. In the year 1828, a Circular Instruction, of which'
I enclose you a copy, was issued to the governors of those colonies in which
there were Negroes forfeited to the crown under the Abolition Laws, the purport
of which was, to direct that those Negroes should be placed upon the footing of
other free persons of African birth or descent, and left to seek their own subsist-
ence. In some of those colonies, the number of forfeited Negroes amounted to
several hundreds. The reports which have since been received, from the respec-
tive governors, fully justify the expectations which were entertained, that the
people in question would be able and willing to support themselves by honest
means, without being a charge upon the funds either of the Government or of
the colonies, and without detriment to the colonial societies. The experience thus
obtained affords a satisfactory assurance that the Negroes, now the property of
the crown, will, when manumitted, support themselves by their own exertions, in
a manner equally innocuous. I am aware, however, that in the case of these
Negroes, as of others, some instances will probably occur in which the aid of
Government may be required by persons who are incapacitated through age or
infirmity. Cases such as these must be provided for in the manner which you
will perceive to have been pointed out by the enclosed despatch, in regard to si-
miliar cases occurring amongst the forfeited Negroes after their manumission. The
charge which such a provision has been found to impose upon Government is of
veiy trifling amount.

" I understand that many of the slaves belonging to the crown in the colonies
are either given gratuitously, or let out, to public functionaries. It may thus be
necessary to give time to their employers either to make agreements with the
Negroes, for retaining their voluntary services in return for wages after their
manumission, or to supply themselves in some other way with the services which
they require. You will therefore allow one month, and no more, to elapse, be-
fore you carry into full effect his Majesty's commands, by completing the enfran-
chisement ef all Negroes the property of the crown."

In the case of the Mauritius, the instructions given by Lord
Goderich (bearing date 29 July, 1831) were modified in some
measure by the peculiar circumstances of that island.

" Considerations of a general nature and of great importance," he
says, " have induced his Majesty's government to regard the en-
franchisement of the slaves belonging to the crown, in Maaritius
and elsewhere, as one which is absolutely indispensable, and which
must be carried into eflPect without any farther delay than may be
necessary for ensuring, as far as possible, the future welfare and
good conduct of the Negroes in question."

The following are the principles he lays down for effecting thi&
©bject : — ;

Liberation of forfeited Africans and Croivn Slaves. 211

*' ist. The enfranchisement of all Government slaves whatsoever is to be
effected within twelve months from the date of your receipt of this despatch.

" 2dly. Wages at the market rate of the colony are to be offered to those who
may, at the time of their enfranchisement, be employed as labourers, couriers,
messengers, boatmen, or mechanics in the several departments of the public ser-
vice ; and the same wages are to be secured to them for one year from that time,
provided they be willing to work, and do actually perform a fair portion of work
in return for such wages. After the expiration of the year, they will continue to
be hired, or not, according to the demands of the public service for their labour,
as well as according to their willingness to be employed.

'* Srdly. Those who are employed as domestic servants by the governor or
other public oiScers will, of course, be at liberty to enter into contracts for con-
tinuing their services to their employers, if desired, in return for wages, the
amount of which must be adjusted by the parties as in other cases of hiring free
servants, but the wages must be paid by the officers and not from the colonial
revenue.

" 4thly. The issue of rations, clothes, or other allowances must cease from the
date of their liberation, in respect of all the Negroes, except in cases hereinafter
specified ; and except the aged, the infirm, and the orphans, who must continue
to be maintained at the public charge.

" 5thly. For those to whom the public service does not afford a prospect of
employment on wages, and also for those domestics whom their present employers
are unwilling to retain on wages, it will be necessary that some provision should
be made, if there be no such demand for their labour in the colony as will enable
them to subsist themselves. In this case, grants of land sufficient for their sub-
sistence must be assigned to them, together with a supply of such implements as
may be necessary for the cultivation thereof, and rations for one year, as recom-
mended by the Commissioners of Eastern Enquiry. Whether an issue of
rations for a further period be required (as conjectured by the Commissioners
of Colonial Enquiry) will be seen at the expiration of the former; and, unless
it be absolutely indispensable for the subsistence of the Negroes, it must not be
permitted.

" 6thly. Those who are hired out by the Government to private individuals
will be at liberty to continue in the service of those individuals on the same
terms, witli the difference of receiving for themselves as wages the amount of
their hire, and relinquishing their claim upon the Government for clothing and
maintenance. If they are unwilling to continue in those situations they will be
free to quit them ; but they must fully understand that if they do so voluntarily,
not being discharged by their employers, they will not receive any assistance
from the Government in seeking the means of subsistence. If any be discharged
by their present employers, and are unable to meet with others, they may be
located on grants of land, under the same rules of location as I have already-
prescribed.

" 7thly. Those who have been apprenticed must serve out the terms of their
apprenticeships, but must be subject to no other discipline or control than is
lawfully in use in respect of apprentices of free condition.

" 8th!y. In carrying into effect the liberation of the Government slaves, you
will not fail to attach to the grants of freedom a proviso that the persons so en-
franchised shall not be capable of holding any property in slaves. There are
many considerations, to which it is not necessary that I should here advert, which
render it highly important that such a condition should in every instance be
strictly enforced."

He objects to certain proposals that had been made of giving to
these slaves only a modified kind of freedom, as he thought it better
to effect " an exchange at once of all the obligations of slavery for

212 Liberation of forfeited Africans and Crown Slaves.

those of freedom," so as to withdraw from them " all means of
subsistence not derived from voluntary and independent labour." In
the ease of the Crown slaves in the West Indies, he had seen no
reasons for delaying their immediate enfranchisement, and they were
set free, without any delay, to the amount of many hundreds. As
doubts had been raised, however, respecting the character of the
Crown slaves in Mauritius, he would permit the local government to
modify the means he had proposed for carrying into effect the
indispensable measure of emancipating them : but it must be clearly
understood that whatever those modifications might be, and " what-
ever plan may be proposed, must contemplate the adoption of the
necessary measures (namely, for effecting their emancipation) within
twelve months from the receipt of this despatch, and must be di-
rected towards the placing the Negroes in a condition comprising all
the essentials of freedom," p. 6.

The result of these enlightened and decisive instructions, respecting
the slaves in Mauritius, upwards of 1200 in number, will not be
known for some months to come.

The only colony in the West Indies in which the benevolent pur-
poses of the government on this subject appear to have met with
obstruction has been Trinidad. The council of that island admit
that the Crown has a right to enfranchise all slaves either escheated
or forfeited; but they plead for either retaining as labourers, or
selling as slaves, what they call the colonial gang — a body of about a
hundred Negroes, whom they claim as the property of the inhabitants
of Trinidad, being held, they say, by them, " under a title as valid as
that by which any slaves are owned by individuals," having been
bought with the " colonial money." Lord Goderich ably and un-
ansv/erably repels this claim, as wholly unsupported by any law. If
these Negroes are indeed property, he argues, they can be only the
property of the king ; that which is loosely termed public property,
being really vested in him alone, in trust for the benefit of his
subjects in Trinidad, and not in the colonists, who have no corporate
rights. In the performance of this trust, it belongs to him (the king),
and to him alone, acting by his ministers, who are responsible to
parliament for their advice, to decide how the individuals in question
can be employed most advantageously for the public service. We
will not enter upon his legal argument, which appears to us incon-
trovertible, but proceed to the conclusion to which the course of that
argument brings his Lordship, and which he thus states: —

" The practical question which presents itself, therefore, is, whether the general
interests of the colony, the only legitimate object of consideration, would be more
advanced by the manumission of these slaves, or by their continued detention in
slavery. Were I to regard that interest as confined to the single question of profit
and loss, I should still entertain a strong belief that it would be best promoted by
the enfranchisement of the slaves. The council, in their minute, have taken the
question entirely for granted, and assume as incontrovertible that the labour
exacted of these persons could not be performed with equal economy, if free
labourers were employed at wages fairly representing the value of their services.
To the accuracy of this assumption I cannot, however, thus promptly subscribe.
It is well worthy of a very close enquiry whether in this particular instance it is

Liberation of forfeited Africans, and Croicn Slaves. 213

really frugal to save the payment of wages by undertaking all the onerous obliga-
tions of a slave owner. Let it on the one side be ascertained what the average
annual rate of wages would be, and then contrast with that charge all that must
be expended for the food, lodging, clothing, and medical care of the slaves, if
estimated on such terms as their necessities justly require. Add to this a fair
allowance for the risk of life and health, and the necessity of replacing the dead
or infirm by new purchases ; with the probable charge of maintaining young
children bora of the female slave, and such of the members of the gang as may
survive their powers of labour. To all this let a further addition be made for the
expenses of superintendence, and especially for the loss sustained by the torpid
and inefficient exertions of men working without any other motive than the fear
of punishment. A calculation from which any of these elements is excluded must
lead to fallacious results. A calculation which should fairly embrace them all
would, I believe, show that the employment of slaves, in any labour which does
not impose the most extreme fatigue, is, even to private individuals, and when
viewed only in the narrowest commercial light, much less advantageous than is
usually supposed ; and that the momentary saving in wages is, in the course of
a very few years, more than compensated by losses and liabilities, which the
council in framing their minute forgot to estimate. The labour of slaves, when
not under the superintendence of persons stimulated to vigilance by personal in-
terest, is still less likely to be really economical; and' experience has shown that
public works are more cheaply executed by contract than even by free labourers
under the control of public officers. In our penal colonies, notwithstanding the
apparent cheapness of convict labour, the scarcity of free labourers, and the diffi-
culty of finding proper persons to undertake the execution of public works, these
are upon the whole, in the opinion of the most competent judges, more econo-
mically performed by contract than by convicts in the immediate service of the
Government. I have no doubt that the same principle would apply in Trini-
dad ; and that, without reference to any higher considerations than those of mere
economy, the retention of the colonial gang would be injudicious.

"For these reasons, I consider it expedient to relieve his Majesty's Trinidad
revenues from the burthen of supporting these slaves ; but, in so doing, I cannot
on the part of his Majesty consent to their being sold.

" The gang appears to have been purchased nearly fourteen years ago ; and
his Majesty could not be advised to refuse to these slaves, if their servile con-
dition were to continue, that asylum which after so long a service they would
justly claim from any owner of common humanity, or to hazard their passing
into the hands of proprietors whose characters and mode of treatment might
possibly render the change a serious evil to them; they j/zms^, therefore, be
manumitted, according to my instructions of the 12th of March last ; and for
that purpose you will execute, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, the
necessary act of enfranchisement."

The principles thus laid down by his Lordship have obviously a
bearing far beyond the immediate occasion which called them forth.
They are principles of general application, affecting the whole ques-
tion of slavery, no less than that of the disposal of the colonial gang
of Trinidad. We say nothing of those higher considerations of mo-
rality and religion, of humanity and justice, which it is now uni-
versally agreed demand that slavery should be abolished. Its pro-
fitableness is now the only plea urged even by its advocates for
continuing to uphold it. The argument of Lord Goderich completely
demolishes this plea, and proves its impolicy, even on mere worldly
and commercial grounds. In short, he shows slavery to be as foolish
as it is admitted to be wicked ; and demonstrates that every day
which prolongs the evil only adds to the loss which cannot fail to

214 Persecution of Samuel Stviney, a Jamaica Slave.

result from it. The pecuniary profit which a few individuals may
derive from it must be viewed by the statesman as standing on a
similar footing with the gains derived from offences comnaitted against
the well-being of society, and which, while they demoralize the in-
dividuals who commit them, are a source of loss, as well as of inse-
curity, to the public at large. The duty of a government which re-
cognizes the identity of the two cases seems plain and palpable. It
is as incumbent on them to rid society of the evil and danger of
slavery as it is to protect the public peace, and the public interests,
from the effect of any of the crimes which the laws denounce and
punish. Only let the principles so ably stated by Lord Goderich be
brought into their full and legitimate operation, and they would as
certainly terminate the slavery of every British subject as they have
already restored freedom to the colonial gang of Trinidad, and to all
the other slaves of the crown, whether held by forfeiture, escheat, or
purchase. We cordially congratulate the friends of the slave on the
uncompromising assertion of such principles, and we only desire that
their application may have the unlimited extension to which they are
most justly entitled.

3. Persecution of Samuel Sioiney, a Jamaica Slave.

In our third volume. No. 64, p. 301, we gave some account of the
illegal and cruel punishment of a slave of the name of Samuel Swiney,
at Savanna la Mar, in Jamaica, whose only offence was the having
offered up a brief prayer to God. For this offence he was sentenced
to be flogged, and to work at hard labour in chains for a fortnight.

A complaint having been made to the Secretary of State of this
iniquitous transaction, the matter was referred to Lord Belmore for
investigation. The papers have been laid before Parliament, and are
contained in No. 450 of the 24th May, 1832. It there appears that
Lord Goderich, having received Lord Belmore's report dated 1st Dec.
1830, addressed his Lordship in reply on the 25th April, 1831.
The facts of the case are thus detailed by Lord Goderich in that
despatch : —

" On the evening of Easter Sunday, 1830, a part of Mr. Knibb's congrega-
tion assembled at his house, for the pupose of holding what is called by persons
of their persuasion a ' prayer-meeting.' Mr. Knibb was absent on account of
severe indisposition, and a person of colour presided at the meeting. Accord-
ing to the mode of worship adopted on such occasions, extempore prayers
were delivered by members of the congregation.

" The slave Sam Swiney was amongst those who were engaged in this reli-
gious exercise. Two persons, named Pessoa and Mitchener, having introduced
themselves into the room where the meeting was held and witnessed the pro-
ceedings, gave information, upon which a warrant was' issued for the apprehen-
sion of six free persons and six slaves. Of the persons who were apprehended
Sam Swiney alone was tried, and he was tried before Messrs. Finlayson and
Harden, magistrates, for a violation of the fiftieth clause of the Slave Act of 1816,
which clause I find to be in the following words : ' And whereas it has been
found that the practice of ignorant, superstitious, or designing slaves, of attempt-
ing to instruct others, has been attended with the most pernicious consequences,
and even with the loss of life; Be it Enacted, That any slave or slaves found
guilty of preaching and teaching, as Anabaptists or otherwise, without a permis-

Persecution of Samuel Swiney, a Jamaica Slave. 215

sion from their owners and the quarter sessions for the parish in which such
preaching and teaching takes place, shall be punished in such manner as any
two magistrates may deem proper, by ilagellation or imprisonment in the work-
house to hard labour.'

Sam Swiney was convicted, and Mr. Finlayson states, as the ground of the
conviction, that ' an affidavit was made by Richard Pessoa that on the nights of
Tuesday and Thursday, the 6th and 8th, and Sunday the 11th of this instant
month (April), deponent was present and saw nightly meetings and collections
of sundry persons, slaves and of free condition, engaged in preaching, teaching,
and singmg psalms and hymns in a house in Great George-street, in the town of
Savanna la Mar, at present occupied by William Knibb, Baptist Missionary,
but in his absence, and on many other days and times besides the before-men-
tioned, when and where they made a great noise, to the annoyance and disturb-
ance of all the neighbours, keeping it up until nine or ten o'clock each night;
that Mary Vanhorne took the most active part in the ceremony, officiating as
minister and giving out the hymn, after which followed the prayer alternately by
the others, named Sam Swiney and Diana Swiney.'

" Mr. Finlayson further states that testimony on oath was given by Thomas
A. Mitchener, Mr. Simeon, and Alexander Gibson, jun., besides Pessoa, but
he does not mention either the particulars or the substance of their testimony.
He adds that Sam Swiney was sentenced, as had been stated by Mr. Knibb,' to
a fortnight's labour in the workhouse, and to receive twenty lashes. Mr. Knibb s
account of the evidence on the trial is contained in the following extract from
his published statement : ' Their examination took place on the succeeding
fhursday, when I was present, but before I detail the proceedings I will men-
tion the particulars of the deposition made on oath by Pessoa, one of the in-
formers. It contained the four following charges, the whole of which I am
prepared to prove were false, as also that the majority of them were proved so
on oath by three respectable gentlemen; 1st, that the persons were assembled
for the purpose of preaching and teaching; '2d. that the meeting was continued
until between the hours of nine and ten o'clock at night; 3d, that such a noise
was made as disturbed the whole of the neighbourhood ; and, 4th, that a slave,
named John Wright, was there, who it could have been proved at that time was
four miles off.

" ' To answer the second and third of these charges, the head constable who
lives opposite to my house, Mr. Gibson who resides next door, and Mr. Qualo
who was with the first-named gentleman on the night mentioned, appeared with-
out being solicited, and on oath deposed that, so far from these charges being
true, they could not hear the least noise, and that they were certain that the
meeting was over before eiglit o'clock in the evening.

" ' The owner of the slave who subsequently suffered, Mr. Aaron De Leon,
attended the investigation, and informed the presiding magistrates, the Hon.
D. Finlayson and T. W. Harden, Esq., that he had given the Negro Sam free
permission to attend the meeting : when the custos asked if the permission was
given in writing, and, on the owner answering that he was not aware that it was -
necessary, he was informed that the omission rendered his leave of no avail.'

" Mr. Knibb proceeds to say that he attempted to convince Mr. Finlayson
that there was a manifest difference between praying and preaching, or teaching,
but that his attempt was unsuccessful; that the slave was convicted, and that he
himself attended the infliction of the sentence, and saw the slave receive twenty
lashes of a cart-whip, immediately after which he was chained to a convict, and
sent to work on the road.

" As your Lordship cannot but have perceived that the statements which I
have thus recapitulated furnish a very imperfect account of die transaction which
you were requested to investigate, and as Mr. Knibb, in his letter of the 12th of
October, writes that when his health should be re-established he would be happy
to give any further information whicli your Lordsiiip might require, I have hoped

216 Persecution of Samuel Swine y, (l Jamaica Slave.

to receive from your Lordship a further communication, and in that expectation
I have hitherto^eferred to acknowledge your despatch of 1st December ; but, as
I have not heard from you again upon the subject, I am induced to suppose that
Mr. Knibb continues incapacitated by ill health, and that your Lordship has not
resorted to any other source from which the necessary information might be ob-
tained. It is obvious, however, that the case cannot be allowed to rest here.
When proceedings thus offensive to the principles of toleration and the feelings of
humanity are brought to the knowledge of his Majesty's Government, and are
justified on the part of those directing them by no allegation of reasonable
grounds, but simply by an appeal to the clause of the Act under which they
took place, it is at least necessary that their strict legality should be made appa-
rent. But your Lordship will not have failed to observe that the statements
which you have transmitted leave the legality of the proceedings open to very
serious doubts.

" The evidence for the prosecution is stated to have been clearly contradicted,
in more than one particular, by persons residing in the immediate neighbour-
hood of the house where the meeting was held, one of whom was the head
constable. Pessoa, although he stated that the persons present at the meeting
were engaged in preaching and teaching, appears, when he came to describe
what took place, to have deposed to nothing on the part of the slave who was
convicted, or indeed of any others in particular, except singing hymns and utter-
ing prayers.

" It is difficult to conceive how either of these acts of devotion could be pro-
perly designated as preaching or teaching; Moreover, the clause of the Slave
Act to which Mr. Finlayson refers, although it authorizes punishment ' by flagel-
lation or imprisonment in the workhouse to hard labour/ does not authorize the
infliction of both these modes of punishment. The slave had the full permission
of his owner to attend the meeting. Although I nowhere find that such per-
mission must be in writing, as Mr. Finlayson is stated to have averred, in order
to be available, yet I perceive, in law, that it would not be of any avail under
the fiftieth clause of the Slave Act, unless accompanied by a permission from
the quarter sessions of the parish. I do not. mention this therefore as an addi-
tional objection to the sentence in point of law ; but it is nevertheless a strong
presumption of the harmless nature of the proceedings on account of which the
sentence was pronounced. According to Mr. Finlayson, the deposition of Pessoa
referred to sundry meetings which he has witnessed. Mr. Knibb speaks only of
a meeting on Easter Sunday, from which I presume that the evidence, as re-
garded Sam Swiney, only applied to the single occasion.

" It is obviously necessary, however, that this point should be distinctly set
forth, in order to communicate a complete and satisfactory understanding of the
questions at issue.

" I repeat, therefore, that it is necessary to have much fuller information re-
specting this case, and that at least the lawfulness of the course adopted by
Messrs. Finlayson and Harden must be shown before his Majesty's Government
can lay aside the enquiry."

The additional information required by Viscount Goderich having
been obtained and transmitted to England, his Lordship, on the
15th Nov. 1831, further addressed the Earl of Belmore to the fol-
lowing effect : —

'' I have received your Lordship's despatch of the 23d August last, enclosing
to me the further documents which, in compliance with my instructions, your
Lordship had obtained in elucidation of the case of the slave Samuel Swiney, a
member of a congi-egation of Baptists whom Mr. Knibb, the Baptist missionary,
had stated to have been sentenced by two magistrates, Messrs. Finlayson and

Persecution of Samuel Swiney, a Jamaica Slave. 217

Harden, to be flogged and confined to hard labour, in chains, for uttering a
prayer at a meeting of the congregation.

" I have already, in my despatch of the 25th of April, recapitulated the cir-
cumstances of this case as I collected them from the documents which your
Lordship had transmitted in your despatch of the 1st of December, 1830, and
as the account so collected is borne out in every material particular by the evi-
dence on the trial of the slave, which I have now received, I need do little more
than refer your Lordship to the view which I took in my former despatch of the
proceedings of Messrs. Finlayson and Harden to explain the grounds of the in-
struction which it is the purpose of my present communication to convey.

" Laying wholly aside the unsworn statement of Mr. Knibb, upon which my
former views were partly founded, your Lordship will perceive that the facts
sworn to are essentially the same as I assumed them to be on the faith of that
statement, when it was uncontradicted by the parties whom it inculpated.

" Richard Pessoa swore an affidavit on the 17th of April ; and though he was
examined viva voce at the trial, five days afterwards, that affidavit appears to have
been received as evidence. Passing over this irregularity, observe what his
affidavit was.

" He states himself to have been present, and to have seen nightly meetings of
slaves and free people, engaged ' in preaching, teaching, and singing psalms and
hymns,' on the nights of the 6th and 8th of April, at the house of Knibb ; but in
his ' absence, and on many other days and times besides the before-mentioned,
when and where they made a great noise, to the annoyance and disturbance of
all the neighbours, keeping it up until nine or ten o'clock each night ; and depo-
nent saith that the names of the persons of free condition are, &c. (mentioning
six names), and those of slaves Sam Swiney,' &c. (mentioning five others). He
adds that ' Mary Vanhorne took the most active part in the ceremony, offi-
ciating as minister, and giving out the hymns ; after which followed a prayer
alternately by the slaves Sam Swiney and Diana Swiney, contrary to the Act of
this island.'

" The same person, being examined on Swiney 's trial, said that incoherent
expressions, such as the following, were made use of by Sam Swiney, * O Lord !
Lord God ! Jesus, my Saviour ! O God ! ' &c. &c., without any connection, which
examinant thought was a mocking of religion. The meetings were scarcely
over before nine o'clock, the bell having generally done ringing before they
were up.'

" The magistrates have stated in their report that Mr. Thomas Mitchener was
sworn. The account of his evidence is given in these words: ' Corresponds
with the above, being in company with Pessoa.' Of Mr. William Simeon and
Mr. Alexander Gibson, two other witnesses, it is merely said, ' Sworn to the
same effect.'

" Such was the evidence for the prosecution. Strangely as it is quoted, this
much is evident : first, no specific day was mentioned on which Swiney was
present. Secondly, Pessoa on the 17th of April declared that on each night
the annoyance had been kept up until nine or ten o'clock; five days afterwards
he swore that the meetings were scarcely over before nine. Thirdly, in his
first affidavit he did not attribute to Swiney any expressions, nor even any direct
participation in the alleged preaching or teaching ; in his deposition he merely
ascribed to him certain unconnected ejaculations. Fourthly, though he states
himself to have been present, he does not say, nor is it probable, that he was
within the house.

" The evidence for the defence was as follows : ' The head constable, who
lived opposite the house, did not hear any riot or noise on the nights alluded to ;
they were over before the bell rung at night.' Qualo, a shopkeeper, is said to
have deposed to the same effect. Gibson, a blacksmith, ' lives next door to
Mr. Knibb ; heard no noise, and believes the meetings were generally over be-
fore eight o'clock, or before the bell rung.'

218 Female Flogghuj in Jamaica.

" No impartial man, reading this evidence, could avoid tlie conclusion that
there vv-as no proof that in the terms of the Jamaica Statute Swiney had been
* preaching and teaching without a permission from his owner and the quarter
sessions.' The want of permission, which is of the essence of the crime, is not
noticed in the evidence. Of preaching or teaching there is absolutely no proof,
unless certain ejaculations can be regarded as falling within the meaning of those
words.

" Had the crime been proved, Swiney might have been whipped, or he might
have been imprisoned with hard labour ; the magistrates condemned him to both.

" The Attorney-general of Jamaica is clear in the opinion that the conviction
was illegal, and the punishments unauthorized.

" Such being the circumstances presented for my consideration, T have felt that
no choice was left me as to the course which I should pursue. It is impossible
that any man can be more sensible than I am to the irksome and painful nature
of the duty, which has been more than once imposed upon me, of visiting with
censure and disgrace persons whom it would be my first wish to maintain in the
enjoyment of that respect, and in the exercise of that authority, to which their
station in society would naturally entitle them. But the principles of justice and
toleration, and the interests of humanity, must not be compromised, and there is
no method of correcting such gross abuses of power as those which the present
case discloses, except by the removal of the magistrates who have been guilty of
them. I am therefore to convey to your Lordship the King's commands to erase
the names of Messrs. Finlayson and Harden from the commission of the peace.

" I have further to instruct your Lordship to call upon the Attorney-general
to report, whether in his opinion there are grounds to sustain a prosecution
against Richard Pessoa for perjury, and, if so, you will direct him forthwith to
institute one."

Our readers will perceive that the case of this poor slave, as ori-
ginally stated by us, is thus fully substantiated by the authority of
Lord Goderich, after a long and patient investigation of the whole
of the evidence transmitted from Jamaica on both sides of the ques-
tion ; and it will remain a farther memorial of the persecuting spirit
which has actuated too many of the magistracy of Jamaica, and
whith has produced such deplorable effects in this and in a variety of
other instances. We need not dilate upon it ; independently of the
able and gratifying comment of the Secretary of State, it speaks for
itself; and we, therefore, shall content ourselves, in addition to our
former observations, with placing the facts on record for future use.

4. Female flogging in Jamaica.

The same parliamentary paper. No. 480, of 1832, contains the
following official extract from the minutes of the House of Assembly
of Jamaica, dated 22d of November, 1831 : —

" A motion being made that a Committee be appointed to enquire and report
on the expediency of abolishing the flogging of female slaves ; and another mo-
tion being made, and the question being put, whether the matter proposed shall
be debated :

" The house divided : the noes went forth.

" Ayes 3. — Mr. Salmon, Mr. Beaumont, and Mr. Watkins.

" Noes 25. — Mr. Mitchel, Mr. Barclay, Mr. Frater, Mr. Townshend, Mr.
Hamilton, Mr. Leslie, Mr. Quarrell, Mr. Jones, Mr. Brown, Mr. Walker, Mr.
Lynch, Mr. Lowndes, Mr. Crawford, Mr. Hodgson, Mr. Marshall, Mr. King,
Mr. Brydon, Mr. Bernard, Mr. Berry, Mr. Yates, Mr. Turner, Mr. Guy, Mr.
Stamp, Mr. Bayley, and Mr. Finlayson.

" It passed in the negative."

Female Flogging, 8fc., in Bahamas, 219

5. Female flogging, Sfc, in Bahamas.
In a communication from Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Bart., the
governor of the Bahamas, contained in the parliamentary papers of
16th March, 1832, No. 285, that officer assures the Secretary of
State that, " though the slaves are looking forward very anxiously to
a considerable amelioration of their condition, he is not apprehensive
of the slightest tumult or insurrection." The slaves, he says, " ap-
pear to me, as also the coloured population, to have the fullest con-
fidence in his Majesty's Government. The low ignorant white people
are in a much greater state of ferment, and much more likely to be
troublesome, if they had sufficient means or numbers." He com-
plains, however, of the conduct of the magistracy, and intimates that
if they should persist in not duly investigating the cases of ill treat-
ment that come before them, though he has not the slightest idea of
any insurrection or premeditated resistance on the part of the slaves
to their owners, " yet it is impossible to say what the feelings of the
slaves luight induce them to attempt, if it were not for the confidence
they have in his Majesty's Government, and their hope of the power
of the master being subjected to some legal control, and that at no
distant period." p. 52.

A monitory letter of the governor, addressed to Mr. Duncome, the
police magistrate of New Providence, accompanies the despatch, and
throws some light on these remarks, and on the general state of
society in this Slave Colony.

" In a country like this," he says, " where the cat-o'-nine tails is at
the command of men and women indiscriminately, and even of minors
of either sex, and can be employed on male and female slaves in-
discriminately, without any other ceremony than the will of the
owner or person acting for the owner ; and where there is no slave
protector; the utmost vigilance, activity, and intelligence, are required
on the part of the police magistrate, to prevent, as much as he can,
the abuse of this dreadful power." p. 53.

He expresses his indignation most strongly at one instance of this
abuse, which had just occurred, in the case of a slave named Ben
Moss. This man had actually purchased his freedom, but the deed
of manumission for effecting it was not yet legally completed. But,
though nothing " could prevent Ben from being a free man the next
day, the attorney of the owner availed himself of almost literally the
last hour of his expiring authority, to inflict thirty-nine lashes on this
poor, worn-out old man ;" and, though efforts were made to save him
" from the pain and ignominy of this cruel flogging," yet those efforts
were used in vain.

Another case is stated by the governor, of an unfortunate female
slave, of the name of Phoebe, who underwent two severe floggings, by
order of her master, Mr. Wildgoos, in the common jail, and the se-
cond of which the police magistrate, " though apprized of, yet took no
steps to interfere with, or to prevent, although she had not been
out of confinement since the infliction of her first flogging, and con-
sequently could not have done any thing to have deserved a second
punishment of so severe and terrible a nature."

220 Slave Insurrection. — Report of the Bishop of Jamaica.

Several other cases of the same description are adverted to by the
governor, and he adds, that there are very many similar to these
which ought to have been, but were not, investigated by the police
magistrate of his own accord ; and that there is nothing the governor
has more at heart than the abolishing of the flogging of female slaves
in toto, and the diminishing of punishment generally ; and that, in
doing so, he has a right to co-operation and assistance from all ma-
gistrates.

6. Slave Insurrection.

The communications of the governors of Barbadoes, Dominica,
Grenada, St. Christopher's, St. Vincent, Tobago, Trinidad, and
St. Lucia, concur in giving the most favourable views of the orderly
and quiet demeanour of the slave population. See Parliamentary
Papers, No. 225, of 1832.

In the case of Demerara, their state, according to the opinion of
Sir B. D'Urban, would have been equally tranquil, but for *' the
discussions which, unhappily for the colony, have been lately carried
on, by a certain portion of the inhabitants, with so little reserve or
apparent care for their probable consequences ; and which cannot be
regarded without just cause of alarm as to the effects they directly
tend to produce in the minds of the Negro population ; as those dis-
cussions bear, on the very face of them, a determination to impede
and weaken the provisions of protection to the slave, which his Ma-
jesty in council has thought fit to enact." Ibid,

7. Report of the Bishop of Jamaica.

A report from the Bishop of Jamaica, dated Aug. 1831 (No. 481),
on the progress of religion in his diocese, has been printed by an
order of the House of Commons of 24th May, 1830.

For his former reports we refer the reader to our preceding volumes;
vol. 1, No. 13 ; vol. 2, No. 41 ; vol. 3, No. 5Q ; and vol. 4, No. 90.
A few remarks will also be found in vol. 4, p. 122 and 485, which
may serve to throw some light on the real progress which religion
has made under his superintendance. The present report, like those
which have preceded it, is of too vague a description to add m.uch to
our former information. The Bishop admits that " from the almost
total absence of proprietors, and many other circumstances, he has
met with many obstacles to the establishment of schools in the in-
terior parts of the island ;" and that, " from their vast extent and scat-
tered population, the parishes are at present very inadequately sup-
plied with the means of instruction." He nevertheless bears his tes-
timony, and his clergy concur in it, " to the intense and earnest desire,
on the part of the slaves, for religious instruction."

To what then are we to attribute the difficulties of which the Bishop
of Jamaica complains, but to the indisposition of the legislature, and
of the proprietors or their agents, to afford to their slaves the time
and the means required for the purpose of Christian instruction ?
The Sunday is still desecrated to secular objects, to marketing and
the cultivation of their grounds. But on this paramount obstacle,
this infallible proof of the prevalent indisposition to instruct their

Report of the bishojj of Jamaica 221

slaves, namely, the want of a Sabbath, the Bishop still maintains a
guarded silence. Though called upon to give a full and detailed
account of the progress of religious improvement, he utters not one
"word respecting this main hindrance to all his efforts and those of
his clergy ; nor does he once suggest the expediency of its removal
by any legislative provision. Why this reserve on so very vital a
subject? We trust that Lord Goderich will require from him, and
from his clergy, a more distinct exposition of this and the other
obstacles which interfere with their success, and frustrate " the in-
tense and earnest desire of the slaves for Christian instruction."

In the report transmitted by the Bishop soon after his arrival (Re-
porter, vol. 2, p. 322), it appeared that there was then, for a popu-
lation of about 370,000 souls, church and chapel room to accommo-
date about 1.5,000 persons. Since that time fifteen additional chapels
have been erected, which may be computed to contain 6000. The
supply, therefore, it will be seen, is still extremely inadequate; and
were it not for the dissenting chapels (most of which, however, have
been recently destroyed by the white mob) the opportunities of reli-
gious worship could be accessible to only a fragment of the slave
population, even had they a Sunday on which to attend it.

The details which accompany the Bishop's despatch are as vague
and defective as ever, except in the case of Mr. Wildman's estates,
where reading is taught by catechists of the Church Missionary So-
ciety, and to whose success the Bishop bears his testimony. The
number of slaves taught to read under the Bishop elsewhere appears
to be extremely small, and these chiefly in towns. In general the
instruction given seems to be still merely oral. The good effects of a
more liberal and enlightened system of instruction are warmly eulo-
gized by the Bishop in the case of Mr. Wildman. " I had the highest
satisfaction," he says, " in visiting Mr. Wildman's estate of Salt Sa-
vannah, in April last. The system adopted here is highly creditable
both to the proprietor and the teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Sterne. The
progress of the slaves in reading, and every useful branch of sound '
religious education, is no less striking than their quiet and civilized
manners, evidently the result of a kind, humane, and enlightened
method of instruction. The system of infant schools has been intro-
duced with so much success that I am anxious to adopt it in all the
towns without delay. Every facility is afforded to the slaves in the
acquisition of useful knowledge, and they are exempt from night
labour, and all severe exertions of any kind." What a tacit reproach
is this example of Mr. Wildman to the proprietary at large !

The Bishop has appointed a minister and a catechist to the Grand
Cuymanas, an island 300 miles west of Jamaica, the population of
which is 1500, including slaves, among whom no minister of any de-
nomination has ever resided. They have shown their anxiety for in-
struction by building two places of worship, and a house for the minis-
ter, and agreeing to contribute to his support.

Schools have been formed in the Bahamas and at Honduras, where
great eagerness for instruction has been manifested. The Bishop
speaks highly of a free black, of the name of Joseph Watkins. He

2 G

Q^'S' Free Black and Coloured Classes.

had mentioned him in a former report (vol. 2, p. 134) as a very ir-
regular person, not in holy orders, and yet ministering publicly and
with great effect in Bahama, being, in fact, the only person who
seemed to have kept alive any sense of religion in that island. The
present report states that he is master of an excellent school for slaves,
and that he ministers to very crowded congregations twice in the
week, *' I attended," he says, " on one of these occasions, and have
much satisfaction in bearing testimony to the character of Joseph
Watkins, and to the good he effects." We congratulate the Bishop
on having surmounted his prejudices, so far as to attend the ministra-
tions of this irregular prop of the church in Bahamas. Why does he
not ordain this black, and give him authority to labour?

8. Free Black and Coloured Classes.

These classes, it is well known, have been relieved from all their
former degrading disabilities, both civil and political, in the different
Crown Colonies of Trinidad, Guiana, St. Lucia, Mauritius, and the
Cape of Good Hope ; and they now stand precisely on the same foot-
ing as to rights with the white inhabitants.

A return has recently been made to the House of Commons, and
printed by its order. No. 363, dated 6th April, 1832, of the laws
passed by colonial legislatures on this subject.

A return of the same kind had previously been made from Jamaica,
which we are happy to say has distinguished itself by being the first
to carry into full operation the example of liberality which had been
given by the Government in the Crown Colonies. Its Act for that
purpose, passed on the 21st of December, 1830, is a model of effec-
tive legislation, which all the Colonies would do well to imitate. The
following are its comprehensive terms : —

Whereas former Acts *' do not sufficiently remove the disabilities
to which the free brown and black population of this island are sub-
jected : and whereas it is expedient to grant additional privileges to
such persons :" it is hereby enacted, " that the before-mentioned
Acts, and each of them, and every matter, clause, or thing in them
and each of them contained, are hereby repealed and made null and
void, to all intents and purposes, any thing in the said Acts or either
of them to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And be it
further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that, from and after the
passing of this Act, all the free brown and black population of this
island shall be entitled to have and enjoy all the rights, privileges,
immunities, and advantages whatsoever, to which they would have
been entitled if born of, and descended from, white ancestors."

Barbadoes, Dominica, and Tobago, have pursued the same satis-
factory course with Jamaica, and have made the free black and
coloured admissible even to their legislative assemblies. We fear,
however, that in Barbadoes and Tobago a higher pecuniary qualifica-
tion is required of the newly enfranchised than of the whites. But
this point is not clear. These Acts are all dated in 1831.

The legislature of Antigua, which includes Montserrat and Bar-
buda, limits the title to enjoy all the privileges of whites to those

Free Black and Coloured Classes. 92:^

who have been in a state of undisputed freedom for seven years ; aind
the right of sitting on juries to those who, besides this, shall possess
a freehold of 80^. per annum ; or are merchants, occupying a house
of the value of 60Z. per annum; or who own or rent an estate
with thirty slaves or more, or manage a sugar plantation. No free
black or coloured inhabitants, however, shall be entitled to parochial
relief; and the provisions of the Acts for encouraging the importation
of white servants, and which exclude black and coloured persons
from managing the plantations of whites, are to remain in force.
These are harsh and invidious distinctions, p. 3.

The legislature of the Bahamas is still less liberal than that of
Antigua. In the Act of January 1830, free black and coloured
persons possessing 200^. above what will satisfy their debts, or having
50 acres of land free from incumbrances, and in active cultivation,
are admitted to vote for members of the assembly; but not for
vestrymen, p. 11.

In Gre/mc^a, by an Act of November, 1828, " all free-born" (not
free, but iree-horn), " coloured" (not black), " British subjects within
this island, being freeholders, merchants, traders, managers, or chief
overseers, or lessees of estates, may serve as petty jurors." Such a
miserable extension of privilege to so highly respectable a body as the
free classes of Grenada is an insult rather than a boon, p. 16.

In St. Christopher's, by an Act of December, 1830, " all free
coloured and black native inhabitants of this island, being the issue of
free subjects, are admitted to the enjoyment of all civil rights, as
fully as other inhabitants, with the exception of seats in the House
of Assembly as members thereof." It is further provided that indi-
viduals of the free coloured and black classes may have all civil
rights conferred on them by private bills, if qualified by their circum-
stances and attainments ; fourteen such persons are named in this
Act, to whom, by name, such rights are at once extended, p. 20.

In the Virgin Islands, by an Act of August 1831, all free British,
coloured or black persons, natives of the island, and domiciled therein
for five years, or who may hereafter be manumitled, shall, after seven
years from the date of such manumission, be entitled to all the rights
of the white inhabitants. None, however, who cannot read, write,
and cast accounts, shall have the privilege of sitting on juries, or in
either house of legislature; nor shall this Act extend to any runaway
slave who may be made free, nor to any free coloured or black per^
son who shall make these islands a domicile for evading the laws of
any other country whatsoever, p. 21.

In St. Vincent, an Act of December, 1830, removes all dis-
abilities whatsoever from free persons of colour (not blacks) who are
natives of this island and its dependencies, but is not to extend to
any Charaibs, or their descendants, remaining in this island, p. 23.

All these uncalled-for restrictions of the legislatures of Antigua,
Bahamas, St. Christopher, the Virgin Islands, and St. Vincent, are
very discreditable to them, and show that they fall far behind, in
liberality and sound policy, the law-givers of Jamaica, Barbadoes
Dominica, and Tobago. Nothing is said of Nevis and Bermuda.

224 Protection given to slaves by law, SfC.

9. The protection given to Slaves in Jamaica by Law, Magistrates,.
Grand Juries, and Councils of Protection, illustrated.

The following letter from Viscount Goderich to Lord Belmorey
dated Nov. 1, 1831, has not yet been laid before Parliament. We,,
nevertheless, venture to give it publicity, as it has already appeared
in many newspapers both in Jamaica and in this country, and as it will
serve seasonably to illustrate the imperative necessity of adopting early
and effectual means to put a final period to the guilt and misery of
such a system. We trust that all the details of this atrocious case,
and which seem to Lord Goderich too horrid to bear recital, will yet
be given to the public. It is only by such details that the laws and
manners of slave colonies can be adequately understood.

" My Lord, — I have received your Lordship's despatch, dated the
31st of August last, No. 84, transmitting various documents connected
with the case of Mr. Jackson, the custos of Port-Royal, in Jamaica.

" I am happily relieved from the necessity of entering into all the dis-
gusting details of the cases brought under my notice in your Lordship's
despatch. In Dr. Palmer's letter of June 13 that task is very fully
performed : I will advert only to some of the more remarkable cir-
cumstances.

" It appears, then, that a complaint was preferred to Dr. Palmer, as
a magistrate, of extraordinary cruelties committed by Mr. Jackson,
the custos, or senior magistrate, of the parish of Port-Royal, and by
his wife, on the persons of two female slaves. Dr. Palmer immediately
endeavoured to effect the arrest of the two females, with a view to their
protection, pending the necessary enquiry; and wrote to Mr. Jackson
to apprize him of the measures which it was intended to take. On
receiving that letter, Mr. Jackson seems to have applied to his brother,
Mr. Campbell Jackson, who was also in the commission of the peace,
to undertake the investigation of the complaint. Mr. C. Jackson ac-
cordingly summoned the two slaves before him. He has assigned as
a reason for this proceeding that Dr. Palmer had omitted to take
down in writing the examination of the witnesses. One of the com-
plainants is stated to have refused to state her case to Mr. C. Jack-
son, because he was the brother of the accused ; and it is added that
Mr. C. Jackson compelled her to enter into such a statement only by
threats of punishment. Upon hearing her narrative, he determined
that a council of protection should be immediately summoned, and
with that view addressed to the clerk of the peace a letter, directing
him to summon such a council, which, it was observed, ought to meet
' on any day that may be most agreeable to Mr. Jackson.' ' I have
further,' observes Mr. C, Jackson,' to remark that the charges preferred
by the above-named slaves are vexatious and frivolous.'

" This letter was written on the 6th of June. On the following day
the council of protection was accordingly summoned by a third justice,
Mr. Hyslop, and Dr. Palmer was required to attend it on the 11th of
the same month. Dr. Palmer, having brought the case under your
Lordship's notice, answered this summons by a letter, dated the 8th of
Jiine, in which he requested that the meeting might delayed until

Protection given to slaves by law, SfC. 225

the governor's opinion should be known. He at the same time pointed
out the extraordinary conduct of the Messrs. Jackson in thus trans-
ferring the case from the cognizance of himself to that of a junior ma-
gistrate, who was the brother of the accused party ; and he noticed as
•a reason for awaiting your Lordship's intentions that every member of
the council of protection virtually owed his appointment to the magis-
tracy to the recommendation of the custos, whose conduct they were
required to investigate. The council, however, met on the 11th of
June, when Dr. Palmer moved that the proceedings should be ad-
journed until your Lordship's answer had been received. This motibw
was overruled by the unanimous voice of the whole body, who then
proceeded to investigate the complaints which Mr. C. Jackson had al-
ready declared 'frivolous and vexatious.' Declining, for the reasons
already assigned, to enter at large into the details of this evidence, it
is unfortunately necessary that I should recapitulate some of the facts
which were substantiated.

" It appears, then, that the elder of these slaves was the mother of
the younger, and that they had both passed their lives in domestic
service, and without having been employed in field labour. A dialogue
seems to have taken place between Mrs. Jackson and one of her
children and these women, in which it may be inferred that the slaves
exhibited some violence of demeanour, attended with language unbe-
coming the relation in which they stood to Mrs. Jackson. It is not
without a painful sense of the degrading light in which the narrative*
exhibits a lady in Mrs. Jackson's rank of life that I proceed with it.
She^with her own hands took a ' supplejack ' and flogged the younger
slave with it till the instrument broke. The flogging was then renewed
with a whip. On this the mother broke out in violent remonstrances,^
when Mrs. Jackson (in terms which I will not venture to transcribe or
to characterize) threatened to punish her. In her renewed remon-
strance the mother stated that her mistress ' had flogged her before
Christmas, had laid her down and flogged her by the driver,' The?
daughter is said to have then been placed in the corner of the room
to stand up the whole day. The mother was placed in the stocks, and'
kept there ' two or three weeks, night and day.' At the end of that
time she was carried to the other stocks, in a place called the hot-
house, where she was kept ' for about two or three weeks,' the
daughter being placed in those stocks from which her mother had beerc
removed. For no less than four months these unfortunate women,
though bred as domestics, were employed in the field, and, when not
in the field, were confined in the stocks ; and both the labour and the-
confinement were so arranged that, during the whole period of the
punishment, they should have no opportunity of speaking to each
other. This protracted confinement in the stocks appears to have
been peculiarly strict, and even the Sundays were passed in this
dreadful situation. Incredible as it might appear, the mother, even
while labouring under fever and ague, was still kept in the stocks.
She had lived for twenty-two years in the service of the family by whom
she was thus treated.

" The younger female, in her evidence, describes herself eis having

226 Protection given to slaves 6y law, ^c,

Iseen beaten with a strap by the hands of Mr. Jackson himself; as^
having then been flogged by Mr. Jackson's orders with a new cat; as
having been confined in stocks so narrow as to wound her feet ; as
having been kept there at night for more than six weeks or two months.
During her labours in the field, she states her arms, neck, and back,
were blistered ; that, on complaint being made of this to Mr. Jackson,
he answered merely by a brutal oath, and that he proceeded to send
for scissars, with a view to cut off her hair, to compel her to remove
from her head, and place round her neck, a handkerchief, which was
the only defence from the sun.

" It was admitted that the release of these women from the stocks
did not take place until the very day on which Dr. Palmer's letter was
received by Mr. Jackson. This is stated to have been on the 4th of
June, and Mr. Jackson is represented in the minutes of council to have
admitted that the confinement commenced in the middle of January.
It must, therefore, have lasted very nearly six complete months !

*' Respecting the alleged tightness of the stocks, the witnesses for the
defence contradicted the statements of the younger slave. Much was
stated of the insolence of these women, and of the gross impropriety
of their language, and much respecting the habitual humanity of the
accused parties ; but to the specific imputations of cruelty no defence
was made or attempted.

" The council of protection decided that there were not sufl&cient
grounds for a prosecution; that neither the letter nor the spirit of the
law had been infringed ; that in cases of confinement the duration of
the punishment was not limited by law, the owner being bound only
to show that proper support had been given. They however felt bound
to declare that, ' notwithstanding the aggravated insults so repeatedly
offered by the complainants, it would have been desirable that a less
protracted punishment had been resorted to by the parties accused,
or that they, on finding that confinement had not the effect intended,
had brought the slaves to trial before a competent tribunal.'

" The preceding recital scarcely admits of any "commentary in that
measured tone which it is on every account so desirable to observe
in an official communication of this nature, A series of the most re-
volting outrages on humanity were admitted without reserve, or tacitly
acknowledged. A perseverance for several months together in cruel-
ties of the most scandalous character, on the persons of a young
woman, and of her mother, were unhesitatingly avowed. One of the
offenders was the chief magistrate of theldistrict : the other was that
magistrate's wife. A case more urgently demanding the most rigorous
enforcement of the law, or appealing more strorigly to the compassion
and indignation of all who heard it, could scarcely be imagined. Yet
what was the result? One magistrate, the brother of the criminal, de-
clared the complaint ' frivolous and vexatious.' Four other magis-
trates, members of the council of protection, dismissed it with a sen-
tence full of harsh expressions respecting the conduct of the injured
party, and with language towards the offenders conveying nothing
more than the most gentle and even respectful dissent from the
soundness of the judgment exercised by them on the occasion.

Preteciion given to slaves by law, 3s'e. 227

" The crimination of these unfortunate women, for the use of insolent
^nd indecorous language, scarcely merits serious notice. Here was a
mother compelled to witness the scourging of her daughter with in-
struments of punishment at once painful and degrading. The mother
was then herself subjected to a chastisement attended with every cir-
cumstance of suffering and indecency, and was addressed by a lady
in Mrs. Jackson's rank of life in terms too gross for repetition. Cul-
pable as the words extorted by such shameful conduct may have been,
the apology was such as should have silenced the reproaches of the
owners. With such a domestic example, what decorum could be ex-
pected from an ignorant negress ? With such a provocation, what
self-government could reasonably be anticipated from a mother ? No
condition of life ought to have repressed those emotions with which a
parent must witness the infliction, on her offspring, of such great and
unmerited suffering.

" When your Lordship, after the decision of the council of protection ,
ordered the attorney-general to prefer a bill of indictment, the result
was, that the grand jury ignored the bill ! The ground of their pro-
ceedings can, of course, be known only to themselves ; and the at-
torney-general suggests that the inadmissibility of the evidence of the
slaves was fatal to the bill ; for he observes that the only witnesses
bofore the grand Jury were Dr. Palmer, and the inmates of Mr. Jack-
son's family, who, the attorney-general presumes, would depose only
in favour of Mr. Jackson, unless interrogated as to particular facts, of
which the grand jury, not having before them the minutes of the
council of protection, were ignorant.

" I fear that this apology can scarcely be accepted as satisfactory.
Dr. Palmer was present at the council of protection, and was also
examined before the grand jury. He must have heard the admissions
which, from the minutes of that council, appear to have been made
by Mr. Jackson himself. Dr. Palmer, therefore, was able, as assuredly
he was willing, to prove the confinement, for several months together,
of the mother and daughter in the stocks. It is incredible that he,
the accuser, should have left the grand jury ignorant of the main
ground on which his own charges rested ; and, if they were not in that
state of ignorance, the attorney-general's excuse for their rejection of
the bill of indictment fails altogether. I must also express my entire
disbelief of the fact that a grand jury could have been brought to-
gether, from the contracted society of Jamaica, who wei'C really una-
ware of so very remarkable an occurrence as that of the proceedings
in their own vicinity against the custos of the parish of Port Royal,
for cruelty to two female slaves. The story must have been notorious
throughout every part of the island ; and every gentleman in the
grand jury room must have known that a protracted confinement in
the stocks was the real fact to which the examination of the witnesses
should have been addressed.

" The gentlemen of the grand jury delivered their verdict under the
sacred obligation of an oath. I am bound, therefore, to presume that
it was an honest verdict. I do not venture to assert or to suggest to
the contrary. I can only state that the grounds of their decision are
to me at least quite incomprehensible.

228 Protection given to slaves by law, 8^c,

" This occurrence is no less unfortunately timed than it is melan-
choly. At the very moment when the West India body are com-
plaining, not perhaps without some justice, of the indiscriminate and
violent reproaches with which they have been assailed, is brought to
light this extraordinary circumstance, that one magistrate perpetrated,
and Jive others concurred to screen from punishment, offences agahist
two helplessfemalesof the most revolting a7id unmanly character. With
the utmost anxiety to protect the Colony and its inhabitants from all
calumnious imputations, what power of performing that duty with
effect is left to myself and others, when the magistracy and official
guardians of slaves betray so flagrant a disregard of their domestic
and public duties 1 With what reason, or plausibility, can it be al-
leged that the slaves at Jamaica have no need of additional protec-
tion, when, in a ease so outrageous as the present, the council of
protection would neither jjrosecute nor even censure the criminal,
and the Grand Jury woxild not entertain the indictment ?

" Your Lordship's suspension of Mr, Jackson, the custos, is per-
fectly right, or rather was a measure which it would have been cul-
pable to omit. His Majesty is pleased to confirm your decision, and
to direct that Mr. Jackson be never again entrusted with the authority
of a magistrate.

" As the removal of Mr. Jackson from his office of Judge of Assize
cannot be effected, except by the advice of the Council, your Lord-
ship will convey to that body the opinion of his Majesty's Government
that it is a measure inevitably necessary.

" I am under the painful necessity of further directing the removal
from the commission of the peace of Mr. Campbell Jackson, That
gentleman's interference was, under all the circumstances of the
case, most indecorous. His decision that a complaint of several
months' imprisonment of two women in the stocks was ' frivolous
and vexatious,' though the fact neither was nor could be disputed, is
an evidence of such extraordinary apathy that I cannot be satisfied
to entrust their interests any longer to his care.

" The failure of the bill of indictment against Mr. Jackson ought not
to be conclusive of the case„ I am aware of no technical reason
■which should prevent the attorney-general from proceeding, in such
a case as the present, by a criminal information ; and unless there is
some local enactment, which has escaped my enquiry, which would
prohibit such a measure, your Lordship will immediately instruct the
attorney-general to adopt it.

" Your Lordship will communicate to the Council of Protection of the
parish of Port Royal, or to the individuals who. constituted that body^
in Mr. Jackson's case, a copy of this despatch, admonishing them of
the urgent and indispensable necessity of their acting on any future
occasion in a manner more consonant with the sacred trust imposed
upon them, of doing equal justice between all ranks and classes of
the King's subjects."

Printed by Samuel Bagster, Jitn., 14, Bartholoni-ew Close, Londoa

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 99.] 1st AUGUST, 1832. [Vol. V. No. 9.

I.— RECENT INTELLIGENCE FROM THE WEST INDIES.— 1. Re-
solutions of Black Freeholders of Kingston, Jmnaica; — 2. Address of Free
Black and Coloured Inhabitants of Trinidad; — 3. Address of Free Black
and Coloured Inhabitants of the Bahamas ; — 4. Report of the House of Assem-
bly of Jamaica on the late Rebellion ; with the Protests of the Baptist and
Wesleyan Methodist Missionaries ; — 5. Speech of Mr. Watkis in the Jamaica
Assembly; — 6. Farther Tersecutions in Jamaica ; — 7. Appointment of Dele-
gates to Great Britain by Jamaica Assembly ; — 8. Trial of the Editor of the
Jamaica Watchman for a capital felony.

II.— REBELLION IN JAMAICA.

I. — Recent Intelligence from the West Indies.
I. Resolutions of the Black Freeholders of Kingston.

" Kingston, April 16, 1832.

•' At a meeting of the black freeholders and other inhabitants of
the city of Kingston, held at the house of Miss Woolery, in Church
Street, it was unanimously resolved, that Mr. D. R. Lee be called to
the chair.

" Resolved 1st. — That we, the black inhabitants of the city , are
loyally attached to our gracious and beloved Sovereign William the
Fourth.

"Resolved 2d. — That we are desirous, by legal means, to secure to
all classes of his Majesty's subjects in this island the blessings of the
Free Constitution of Great Britain.

"Resolved 3d. — That we are not, as has been insinuated, inimical
to the amelioration and ultimate emancipation of our brethren in
slavery.

"Resolved 4th. — That we are not, as has been stated, at variance
on material questions with our coloured brethren. On the contrary,
we are ready to co-operate with them, and all liberal and just men,
in every effort which may be legally and constitutionally made for
the welfare of all classes in the island.

"Resolved 5th. — That we respect the rights of private property not
less than we desire the welfare of our brethren in slavery, and, whilst
looking forward to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, pursuant
to the resolution of Parliament and of his Majesty's Government, we
do not forget that the best redress for evil is ahvays to be found in
the melioration of law, supported by the liberal feeling of all classes
of the community.

2 «

230 Address of free black and coloured inhabitants of Trinidad.

" Resolved 6th. — That not having exercised the right of the
elective franchise, by means of a general dissolution of the House of
Assembly, luhich would have enabled us to give an opinion on the
choice of the popular branch of our legislature, we cannot be con-
sidered as represented by the legislators by tvhose laws we are
governed.

" Resolved 7th. — That in pursuance of the foregoing sentiments,
we ivill cordially join our liberal-minded brethren, of every
complexion, in any Petition or Memorial to his Majesty, or his
Government, for the final settlement of the question of slavery, so
that the peace and security of the island may at once be established
on a permanent basis.

" Resolved 8th. — That the above Resolutions be published in the
Times, Atlas, and Examiner, London Newspapers, and Kingston
Daily Papers, and Watchman twice.

" David Robert Lee, Chairman.

2. The following Document is no less important. It embodies the
sentiments of the respectable and wealthy free black and coloured
inhabitants of Trinidad, on the measures of reform, of his Majesty's
Government, with a view to the extinction of slavery. It appeared
in the Royal Gazette of Trinidad, of April 14, 1832, with this pre-
face : —

TRINIDAD.

" The public will peruse, with much satisfaction, the address from
his Majesty's free subjects of African descent to his Excellency the
Governor, which we now publish for general information. The senti-
ments which have been expressed by so numerous and respectable a
portion of the community are highly creditable to their good sense
and integrity, and will be duly appreciated by all who are well-wishers
to the true interests of this valuable colony.

" To His Excellency Sir Lewis Grant, C. H. Governor, ^c. ^-c. 3(c.

"Sir, — We are charged by the persons whose signatures are
affixed to the enclosed expression of their sentiments upon a late
public event, to transmit the same to your Excellency, and we have
now the honour of performing that duty,

" Remaining, with all due consideration and respect, Your Ex-
cellency's very obedient and humble Servants,

J. W. HOBSON,

(Signed)

A. Radix,

Lewis Lebre, Jun.

J. Edwards.

"March 29, 1832.

" To His Excellency Sir Lewis Grant, Governor and Com-
mander-in-chief, ^c. S^c. ^c.
" Sir,

"May it please Your Excellency ,
" We, his Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, whose names
are hereunto subscribed, do feel it a duty incumbent upon us to con-

Address of free black and coloured inhabitants of Trinidad. 231

vey to your Excellency, for ourselves, and on behalf of all our fellow
subjects of African descent, our unanimous opinion upon certain cir-
cumstances arising out of the promulgation of the Order in Council
of the 2nd of November last.

" Vf e should have limited ourselves to the strict observance of that
line of conduct which we have hitherto pursued, as dutiful and
obedient subjects of the King, and have consequently abstained from
any interference whatever with the opinions and proceedings of a
public meeting, held on the 6th January last, at which we declined
assisting, but for one of its resolutions on the subject of allegiance to
the crown of Great Britain,

" Considering that this resolution has been ushered into publicity
in a form at once solemn and imposing, — that it will be rapidly trans-
mitted, through the medium of the daily papers, to every quarter of
the world, and officially conveyed to the Throne, the Peers, and
Commons' House of Parliament of Great Britain, in the name of the
whole inhabitants of Trinidad, — it becomes our duty, as apart of these
inhabitants, to express our unequivocal dissent from its declared
objects.

" With reference to a protest against the late Order in Council of
the 2nd of November last, tendered to your Excellency by the illus-
trious Board of Cabildo, purporting to be on behalf of ' all the in-
habitants of this colony,' and published in the Port of Spain Gazette,
we beg leave respectfully to state to your Excellency that no indi-
vidual of African descent has been admitted into that body, and con-
sequently we do not recognise it as the genuine organ oi \hQ political
opinions of our numerous class.

" Under these circumstances, we now declare to your Excellency
that the attachment which we feel to the Throne and Government of
Great Britain (originating in some of us from natural affection, in
others from adoption, and in all confirmed and fostered by a grateful
remembrance of its liberality,) is unalterable ; and that, in the ardour
of these sentiments, we deprecate a dissolution of the ties which bind
us to the mother country, as the greatest calamity that could possibly
befal ourselves and our posterity.

" Eaithful to the engagements which we have contracted by nature
and from compact, we glory in the title of British subjects. We hold
it to be an enviable distinction aynong the nations of the earth, and
are always prepared cheerfully to fulfil every duty which that
character imposes upon us, either in obedience to the ordinances of
our King, or in defence of his crown and dignity.

" Humbly praying your Excellency to transmit to our gracious
Sovereign these loyal sentiments of his faithful subjects,

" We have the honour to subscribe ourselves, with the most perfect
consideration and respect,

" Your Excellency's most dutiful and obedient humble servants.

" Port of Spain, March 26, 1832."

^^Government-House, Trinidad, April 8, 1832.
** Gentlemen, — 1 had the honour to receive the Address which

232 Address of free black ^- coloured inhabitants of the Bahamas.

accompanied your letter of the 26tli ultimo, and which was signed by
upwards of 400 persons.

" It was my duty, as well as a gratifying task to me, to do early
justice to the spirit of good feeling and loyalty which pervaded that
address. I accordingly availed myself of the opportunity which im-
mediately offered after its receipt, to transmit it to the Secretary of
State for the Colonial Department, with the request that it might be
laid before his Majesty.

" I did not fail, in my Despatch which enclosed your address, to
point out the circumstances which, on this particular occasion, elicited
from you, and those whom you represent, your declaration of attach-
ment to his Majesty's Person and Government; and I have no doubt
that your proceedings, and the laudable motives which gave rise to
them, will be duly appreciated by his Majesty's Government,

" I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, your most obedient Servant,

(Signed) " Lewis Grant „

To John Welch Hobson,"^

Antoine Radix, f -n »

Lewis Lebre, Jun. '

John Edwards.

3. A similar address has been presented by the free black and
coloured inhabitants of Neiu Providence, in the Bahamas, to
Sir James Carmichael Smyth, the Governor, declaring that, " if all
classes of the free inhabitants are to be admitted into the calculation,
the extraordinary contumacy of the late House of Assembly, with re-
spect to the several recommendations of his Majesty's Government,
are far from being in unison with the general feeling of the popula-
tion;" and though that House did profess an intention, under another
Governor, of " entering on a consideration of the rights still withheld
from the people of colour, and the further amelioration of the condi-
tion of the slaves, yet the pledge is far too vague and inexplicit to be
entitled to any confidence, when emanating from persons whose con-
duct and conversation, particularly with respect to the slave question,
continiie even to this hour in open and avowed variance with all such
professions."

They therefore highly approve of the dissolution of this contuma-
cious Assembly, and they tender their thanks to the Governor " for
continuing to the colony the central schools, which afford the pleasing
prospect that the rising generation, among the poorer classes, though
abandoned by their guardians, to ignorance, and idleness, and vice, have
happily found a cherishing source of protection in your Excellency's
parental solicitude and care."

The reply of the Governor to this address is not a little remarkable.

" The little difficulties, he says, and the opposition I have met with,
were, almost as a matter of course, to be expected. I arrived amongst
you at a moment when the attention of the mother country (which
had so long been solely engrossed by the events of the late stupen-
d'ous war) was beginning to be steadily directed towards the details of

Report of the House of Assembly of Jamaica. 233'

our colonial system and policy. It was not in human nature that
gentlemen who have passed their lives in the West Indies should at
once get rid of those notions, respecting difference of colour, which
we, in Europe, look upon as prejudice; nor that, accustomed from,
their infancy to see slaves governed principally by coercion, they
should immediately be aware of the propriety of restraining the power
of the master, and the policy and necessity of a more liberal and
humane slave code. You, gentlemen, who have risen above the
narrow notions and prejudices by which you are surrounded, I honour
and respect. I do not, however, blame other gentlemen for not seeing
things exactly in the same point of view that we do. I shall receive
every convert with pleasure ; and, as the more these subjects are dis-
cussed, the more readily and rapidly truth and justice must prevail,
I anticipate with much satisfaction, that, as the foolish agitation and
excitement of the present moment gradually subside, so will the oppo-
sition to the views and to the recommendations of the truly paternal
government of his Majesty cease equally.

"With respect to myself, I can safely assert that no man can be
more truly anxious than I am for the peace, happiness, and prosperity
of these islands. My best and unceasing efforts will always be directed
to advance your interests. Most sincerely do I hope that when we
come to have another House of Assembly, gentlemen will be chosen
as members, who will see the justice and the policy of at once re-
moving all degrading and harassing distinctions from the free coloured
inhabitants; and of adopting the enactments of his Majesty's Order
in Council of the 2nd November, as the slave law of the colony. The
future tranquillity of these islands v/ill then be established upon a
durable and substantial foundation. Nothing short of these arrange-
ments can lead to any satisfactory result."

4. The following is the Report of the House of Assembly of Jamaica,
on the subject of the late Rebellion : —

House of Assembly, 26th April, 1832.
Ordered,
That the Report of the Committee on the Rebellion be published
once in the several papers of this island.
By the House,

John G. Vidal, Clerk of the Assembly.
Mr. Speaker,
Your Committee appointed to enquire into the cause of, and injury
sustained by, the recent rebellion among the slaves in this island,

REPORT,

" That they have taken the examinations, on oath, of various per-
sons, which examinations, with the original documents sent down to
the house by his Excellency the Governor, on the 15th March last
(and referred to the committee), as well as sundry other documents
respecting the late rebellion, accompany this report.

" Your Committee express it as their opinion, and do report the

234 Report of the House of Assembly of Jamaica,

same to the House, that the causes which have led to the late rebellion
among the slaves in this island are as follow : —

" The primary and most jwwerful cause arose from an evil ex-
citement, created in the minds of our slaves generally, by the 7in-
ceasing and unconstitutional viterference of his Majesty's Ministers
with our local legislature , in regard to the passing of laws for their
government, with the intemperate expression of the sentiments of the
present Ministers, as well as other individuals in the Commons^
House of Parliament, hi Great Britain, on the subject of slavery :
such discussion, coupled with the false and wicked reports of the
Anti-Slavery Society, having been industriously circulated by the
aid of the press throughout this island, as well as theBritish e7npire.

" Secondly, from a delusive expectation, produced among the
whole of the slave population, by the machinations of crafty and
evil-disposed persons, who, taking advantage of the prevailing ex-
citement, imposed upon their disturbed imagination a belief that
they were to be free after Christmas, and, in the event of freedom
being then withheld from them, they ' must be prepared to fight
for it.''

" Thirdly, from a mischievous abuse existing in the system adopt-
ed by different religious sects in this island, termed Baptists, Wes-
leyan Methodists, and Moravians, by their recognising gradations of
rank among such of our slaves as had become converts to their doc-
trines, whereby the less ambitious, and more peaceable, among them,
were made the dupes of the artful and intelligent, who had been
selected by the preachers of those particular sects to fill the higher
officesintheir chapels, under the denomination of 7mlers, elders, leaders,
and helpers ; and, lastly, the public discussions of the free inhabi-
tants here, consequent upon the continued suggestions made by the
King's Ministers, regarding further measures of amelioration, to be
introduced into the slave code of this island, and the preaching and
teaching of the religious sects called Baptists, Wesley an Methodists,
and Moravians (but more particularly the sect called Baptists),
tvhich had the effect of producing, in the minds of the slaves, a be-
lief that they could not sci've both a spiritual and a temporal mas-
ter, thereby occasioning them to resist the lawful _ authority of their
temporal, under the delusion of rendering themselves more acceptable
to a spiritual master.

" Your Committee further report that the injury sustained by the
late rebellion, by the slaves wilfully setting fire to buildings, grass,
and cane-fields destroyed, robbery and plunder of every description,
damage done to the present and succeeding crops, loss of the labour
of slaves, besides those killed in suppressing such rebellion, and exe-
cuted after trial, as incendiaries, rebels, and murderers, has been
ascertained by means of Commissioners appointed under an order of
the House, and by the detailed returns made to the Committee, in
conformity with such order, to amount to the following sums of
money, viz. —

In the parish of St. James, the sum of . £606,250 0 0

, In the parish of Hanover, the sum of . 425,810 15 0

Protest of the Baptist Missionaries. 235

In the parish of Westmoreland, the sum of 47,092 0 0
In the parish of St. Elizabeth, the sum of 22,146 9 7
In the parish of Trelawny, the sum of . 4,960 7 6
Amount of injury sustained in the county of — —

Cornwall " 1,106,259 12 1

In the parish of Manchester,

the sum of . . . 46,270 0 0
Amount of injury sustained in the county of

Middlesex 46,270 0 0

In the parish of Portland,

the sum of . . . 772 10 0

In the Parish of St. Thomas

in the East . . . 1,280 0 0
Amount of injury sustained in the county of

Surrey 2,053 10 0

£1,154,583 2 1

"To which is to be added the sum of £161,596. 195. 9tZ., being the
expense incurred in suppressing the late rebellion, and a further ex-
pense, not yet ascertained, which has accrued since martial law
ceased, being the pay and rations of a portion of the Maroons, as
well as detachments of the island militia employed in the pursuit of
such of the rebellious slaves who have not surrendered themselves,
but remain out, and are sheltered amongst the almost inaccessible
forests and fastnesses in the interior districts of the island.

" Your Committee recommend that the examinations taken before
them, the confessions numbered from one to eleven, and the detailed
returns of the Commissioners appointed under the order of the House,
to ascertain the injury sustained by the late rebellion, be inserted in
the minutes of the House, and printed therev/ith ; and that the re-
maining documents be lodged in the office of the Clerk of the House."

" The evidence on which this extraordinary report is founded we trust
will be forthwith published. In the mean time, the following spirited
protests against it have appeared in the public papers of Jamaica : — ■

PROTEST OF THE BAPTIST MISSIONARIES.

" The Bajjtist missionaries have viewed with indignation and abhor-
rence the unjust attempt made by the Committee of the Hon. House
of Assembly , appointed to examine into the causes of the late rebel-
lion, to injure their characters in the estimation of the British jmb-
lic, by preferring charges against them which cannot be substantiated
— charges as repugnant to the feelings of the missionaries, as dis-
honourable to the men who framed them.

" It is not for the Baptist missionaries to say what was the primary
or secondary cause of the late disastrous events ; it is sufficient for
them at present to state that neither their ' preaching, teaching,' nor
conduct was that cause, aiid they dare the ' Rebellion Committee'
to prove thai it tvas so.

236 Protest of the Wesleyan Methodists.

" The Baptist missionaries, conscious of their innocence of the
charges publicly preferred against them in the report of the ' Rebel-
lion Committee,' feel it to be a duty they owe to themselves — to their
friends in this country — to the Baptist Missionary Society in England
to which they are attached, and to the religious world at large, thus
publicly to state that the charges brought against them, by that com-
mittee, are unfounded and unjust ; that they have wantonly and
grossly libelled men, whose characters have never yet been sullied ;
who have ever submitted in all civil matters unto the powers that be ;
who have inculcated on servants and slaves the duty of obedience to
their masters, and the tenor of whose rninistrations has been agree-
able with, and in conformity to, the doctrines and precepts of that
gospel which is both pure and peaceable .

" One of the Baptist missionaries has already been tried on these
charges, by the highest legal authorities in the island, and acquit-
ted, and all of them have shown their willingness to submit to any
legal iyivestigation into their conduct.

" Deep-rooted andunbending prejudice has been manifested towards
them by men from whom they ought to have received protection. — •
Bribery, perjury, and every species of iniquity has been resorted to,
for the purpose of criminating the ' Baptist missionaries in particu-
lar,^ but in vain ; and yet the ' Rebellion Committee' have con-
demned them unheard — have found them guilty on evidence ivhich
the missionaries have never been made acquainted with; consequently,
neither themselves nor their friends have had an opportunity of dis-
proving it, and have condemned, hi toto, preaching which they have
never heard.

" These facts, to the enlightened and unprejudiced public of Great
Britain, will afford sufficient proof that the " Rebellion Committee'^
have merely chosen this apparently favourable opportunity, for the
purpose of expressing their determined and long -cherished hatred to
religion and its propagators, and they will, at the same time, tend
to establish, more firmly than ever, the unimpeachable characters of

"■ The Baptist Missionaries."

" Kingston, May Sth, 1832."

PROTEST OF THE WESLEYAN METHODISTS.

" Kingston, May Uth, 1832.

" At a meeting of the Wesleyan Missionaries, and of the Leaders of
their respective Societies, in this island, convened by the Chairman
of the District, and held in the Parade Chapel, this 10th day of May,
1832, for the purpose of protesting against the Report of the Com-
mittee appointed by the Honourable House of Assembly to ascertain
the causes of the late rebellion, — It was unanimously

" Resolved 1st, — That we have read the Report of the Committee
appointed by the Honourable House of Assembly, to enquire into the
causes of the late Rebellion in this island ; and perceive, with great
surprise and indignation, the unworthy attempt which is made to im-
plicate us, and our people, as the promoters of the same.

Protest of the Wesleymi Methodists. 237

Resolved 2d, — That as neither the Wesley an missio7iaries, nor the
leaders in their Societies, were directly or hidirectly concerned in in-
stigating, or in any way aiding in the late Rebellion, we consider the
aforesaid report, as far as it relates to the " Wesleyan Methodists/*
utterly false and utifounded ; nearly all the " leaders" being re-
spectable free persons, most of whom are owners of slaves.

" Resolved 3d, — ^That as the report aforesaid is calculated to bring
our system into disrepute, by asserting that it affords facilities for ex-
citing rebellion among the slaves, we feel ourselves called upon to
maintain that our system is scriptural, and peculiarly calculated to
promote peace and good order among all classes of his Majesty's sub-
jects, whether free or slaves ; and that nothing contrary to this cayi
be proved against it. That, therefore, the aforesaid report is a gross
calumny, not only upon ourselves and people in this island, but also
upon the body to which tve belong.

" Resolved 4th, — That being conscious of our own innocence, and
of the praiseworthy conduct of the members of our Societies in this
island during the late disturbances, we consider it our imperative duty
to protest, in the most public and solemn manner, both here and in
Great Britain, against the charges preferred against us in the report
aforesaid ; and also against the conduct of individuals who could
make such a wanton attack upon our characters, ivithout alloiving us
an opportunity of self-vindicatio7i.

"Resolved 5th, — That the assertion, contained in the aforesaid re-
port, that the ' preaching' and ' teaching' of the ' Wesleyan Method-
ists' is calculated to mislead the minds of the slaves, on the subject
of ' lawful authority,' is unworthy our serious consideration ; their
ability to expound and enforce the Holy Scriptures having been de-
cided by a competent tribunal, and the falsehood of the charge can
be refuted by an appeal to the thousands of their hearers throughout
the island.

" Resolved 6th, — That we feel ourselves called upon expressly to
state that there are no ' gradations of rank' recognized in our So-
cieties, in connexion with the slaves in this colony, but members and
' leaders,' of whom we entertain the highest opinion, and whose con-
duct is unimpeachable.

" Resolved 7th, — That these resolutions be signed by all present
on behalf of our Societies in this island, and that a copy of them,
signed by the Chairman and Secretary of this meeting, in behalf of
the seventeen missionaries, and four hundred and forty-six leaders,
be forwarded immediately to his Excellency the Governor, the Earl
of Belmore.

" Resolved 8th, — ^That these resolutions be published in three of
the Island Newspapers, that a copy be transmitted, with the least
possible delay, to our Committee in London, and by them presented
to our most Gracious Sovereign, in any way which to them may
appear the most acceptable.

"Thomas Pennock, Chairman.
"Thomas Murray, Secretary."

2 1

238 Speech of Mr. Watkis.

5. Sjjeech of Mr. Watkis in the House of Assembly of Jamaica,
on the Wth of April, 1832.

Mr. Watkis, pursuant to notice, moved for the appointment of a
Committee to enquire into and adjust the differences between us and
the parent government. "My object," said the honourable member, "in
submitting this motion to the consideration of the House, is to obtain
the aid of a Committee in order to ascertain whether there is not some
common ground of mutual advantage on which the House might be
recommended to co-operate with the parent country in settling, on a
final and beneficial basis, the great questions that have given birth to
the unhappy differences which now sever us. That such a settlement
might be effected, or at all events very much facilitated, I am firmly
convinced, provided the two parties could once be brought into ami-
cable contact. The ultimate aim of my present motion is to place
them, if possible, in this conciliating relation towards each other.
Much is in our power, and much will be required at our hands. To
us are confided the very issues of the social destiny — the most solemn
trust man could hold for man. And, on the wise and temperate
manner in which we discharge this high trust, depend the present
safety and future hopes of this community. When, Sir, we regard
the advancing state of political philosophy, as well in our own com-
munity as in all the civilized nations of the globe, it appears to me to
be the wildest of hopes to expect, by any efforts in our power, to se-
cure the perpetuation of slavery ; and when again we meditate for a
moment on the almost mortal agony through which this country has
just and scarcely struggled, it is surely even worse than wild to wish
to perpetuate a system which, be it remembered, not in our day and
country only, but throughout all times and in all lands where it has
existed, has engendered the same monstrous brood of evils — has led
to the same results of insurrection, woe, and crime. Again, Sir, if we
judge by the known principles of human nature, or appeal to the ex-
perience of all history, we cannot avoid arriving at the conviction that
all governments, founded on the exclusion of the mass from a partici-
pation in political rights, are by the very law of their constitution liable
to change ; they contain within themselves the elements of their own
decay and ultimate destruction. And why ? because they are based on
the principles offeree and fear — -not on those of happiness and love.
It is manifest that such governments can be maintained only by the mo-
ral influence of superior intelligence or by the coercion of superior phy-
sical power. As the Negro exchanges (which he is rapidly doing) his
ignorance for enlightenment, the spell wherewith superior intelligence
may for a while have bound the slumbering energies of his soul, must
dissolve, and, when that enlightenment shall have attained a certain
point, it is clear as the sun at noon that no physical force we can
raise will be sufficient to control him. It is impossible, too, to dis-
guise from ourselves the fact that our Negroes have now nearly attained
that measure of enlightenment at which they must cease to be slaves ;
and, without pretending to the mantle of prophecy, it is not difficult
to predict that if some steps are not speedily taken, we shall again,

Fresh Persecutions in Jamaica. 239

and that perhaps soon, have to mourn our ruined fortunes and mur-
dered kindred. Situated therefore as we are, with such darkening
prospects around us, it assuredly behoves us, in timely resignation, to
descend from our pride of place, instead of brooding over schemes of
bootless opposition to a tide of change which we can neither stem nor
turn, and in which gathering flood all opposition must eventually be
whelmed. If we offer, in a spirit of wise and liberal concession, to
co-operate with the British Government, we shall be met with a like
spirit of wisdom and concession, from which good must flow to all
parties and evil to none. I have been persecuted with calumny on
account of the very humble part that I have taken in promoting what,
in my conscience, I believe to be the real interests of this island. But
no persecution, no hate, no calumny, shall ever for one instant deter
me from expressing and enforcing my opinions through the constitu-
tional organ of this House, Those opinions are the unchangeable
convictions of my reason, and, so long as life and opportunity are left
me, I will unceasingly labour to advance that noblest work — the po-
litical and moral regeneration of mankind."

Mr. Beaumont seconded the motion.

Mr. Lynch said, that agreeably to the resolution entered into at an
early period of the sessions, which resolution he read, no measure,
having for its object the further amelioration of slavery, could be en-
tertained by the House.

The Speaker being appealed to said that the rule did apply. The
motion was therefore lost.

6. Fresh Persecutions in Jamaica.
" Between seven and nine o'clock on Saturday evening, the 7th
(April, 1832), as the Rev. Mr, Bleby, a Wesleyan minister, and his
lady, were sitting to tea at their hired residence in Falmouth, a band
of white and one or two coloured ruffians rushed into the house and
seized him, using extremely violent and abusive language, calling him

a d d preaching villain, &c. &c. ; they then forced Mr, B. to the

opposite side of the room, four or five holding him whilst one struck
him violently on the head — they were all armed with bludgeons. One
of the ruffians brought a keg of tar into the room, and, whilst some
held him, others spread the tar with their hands over his head, face,
breast, and clothes. Whilst this brutal assault was going on, the
fellow named Dobson, who struck Mr. Bleby, attempted to set
Mr. B.'s pantaloons on fire, but was prevented by one of the gang.
He immediately after applied the candle to the tar on Mr. B.'s breast,
but Mrs. Bleby seeing it dashed the candle from his hand, and it
went out. In attempting to interpose between the ruffians and Mr, B.,
Mrs. Bleby was seized by one of them and dashed violently on the
floor, the effect of which, our informant affirms, she still severely
feels. Two of the gang attempted to lock her in the pantry, but she
managed to elude their intention. By this time, the alarm having
been given, some people came to Mr. and Mrs. Blcby's assistance,
and commenced an attack on the villains who were below stairs ; this

240 Fresh Persecutions in Jamaica.

so alarmed those that were employed above that they left Mr. Bleby
and hastened to the assistance of their fellows, and eventually made
their escape, but not until two or three had received the drubbing
which they richly deserved — one so much so as to endanger his life.
About this time Mrs. Bleby with her child escaped through the crowd,
without her bonnet and with one shoe, the villains having first be-
daubed her and her child (about five months old) with tar ! ! Mr. B.,
who was guarded by a party of coloured and black young men, took
shelter in a neighbouring house. Mr. Miller, with a party of the 22d
regiment, soon after arrived on the spot, to whom Mr. B. stated what
had occurred, and claimed protection at their hands. Mr. B. was
taken to the barracks for the night, and Mrs. Bleby was kindly shel-
tered by Mrs. Jackson, the lady of the Clerk of the Peace, who offered
her all requisite assistance. On Sunday the attack was to have been
renewed, but it did not take place. As a specimen of Falmouth jus-
tice, the young men who went to Mr. Bleby's assistance were dis-
armed, by authority, and are to-day to be tried by a court-martial for
the crime of protecting a Missionary, his wife, and harmless infant ! ! !
— Watchman, I4th April.

To the Editor of the Watchman.

, Sir, 21st April, 1832.

I have received from the Rev. Edward Baylis the inclosed account
of the atrocious and blood-thirsty attack made upon him and his
family by armed banditti who are now infesting this country, and
who, with their associates, have already destroyed property to the
amount of twenty thousand pounds, luithout any measures being
adopted to bring them to justice. Its insertion in your paper will
oblige. Sir, your obedient servant,

Wm. Knibb.

'* On Friday evening, the 6th of April, as we were retiring to rest,
a mob of white men, chiefly overseers and book-keepers, armed with
swords, muskets, bayonets, and pistols, rode up to our peaceful habi-
tation at Mount Charles, howling as they approached the house like a
company of savages. After they had entered the gate of the premises
they met with the watchman, a poor faithful old free negro, who was
about to give an alarm. Though he had nothing wherewith to defend
himself, they fell upon him and cut him very severely with their
swords on his head and body, and stabbed him with a bayonet in his
side. He now lies in a dangerous state, and fears are entertained of
his death.

" When these champions of the Colonial Church Union reached the
dwelling-house, they commenced their operations by breaking open
the door and firing their muskets into the house. They then pro-
ceeded to destroy the bed-room windows, forcing in the glass-framed
shutters with such violence that the bed on which Mrs. Baylis and
our little infant were reposing were literally covered with the frag-
ments. They then discharged their muskets and pistols in each of
the bed-room windows (but in much mercy our heavenly Father pre-
vented their murderous designs from being accomplished), while one

Delegates appointed hy the Assembly of Jamaica, 241

of them puthis arm through one of the windows, took alighted candle
from off the table, and endeavoured with it to set fire to the bed-room.
Mrs. Baylis prevented this by putting out the light ere any of the
furniture in the room had ignited.

" After this these murderous members of this church-destroying
society demolished the windows in the house, swearing that the house
should be destroyed that night, while some of them broke open the
stores, calling aloud for fire to burn them, but in this they were de-
feated.

" I Avent unarmed to the door and remonstrated with them, when
some appeared ashamed of their conduct, but others grew more vio-
lent. By this time an alarm was sounded in the neighbourhood, when
the wretches made a precipitate retreat. Though we are in a part of the
country not thickly inhabited, soon more than three hundred persons,
coloured and black, ran to our assistance, and, had not these midnight
marauders made off on their horses, the death they had intended for
us would have doubtless been their lot.

" The coloured and black population around us are now on the
alert, and under their protection we feel ourselves comparatively safe,
and are highly thankful to that Divine Being who so mercifully pre-
served us when exposed to imminent danger."

7. Delegates appointed by the Assembly of Jamaica.

It appears from the Royal Gazette of Jamaica, of the 28th April,
1832, that the House of Assembly had adopted resolutions to the fol-
lowing effect : —

" 1, — That the very alarming and ruinous state of the island calls
upon the representatives of the unjustly calumniated and deeply op-
pressed inhabitants thereof, to adopt some measure that is likely to
obtain substantial justice and permanent relief against the undeserved
calamities they now endure, and are further threatened with.

" 2. — ^That the appointment of a Committee from among the repre-
sentatives of the people, to proceed to Great Britain for the purpose
of laying their grievances at the foot of the Throne for redress, is a
measure likely to be beneficial to the best interests of the colony.

" 3. — That the Hon. Richard Barrett, Speaker, and Hon. Abraham
Hodgson, mem.bers of this House, be, and are appointed, a Committee
from this island, and that they do embark for Great Britain at their
earliest convenience, so as to be in time to meet the next Session of
the Imperial Parliament.

" 4. — That this House will defray the expenses of the members
composing the Committee appointed to proceed to Great Britain, and
that the Receiver-General be directed to pay to each of the members
thereof the sum of £1000 sterling, free of premium, previous to em-
barking for Great Britain, on account of such expenses.

" 5. — That it be recommended to the House to appoint a Com-
mittee to bring in a bill to authorize the Governor, or Lieutenant-
Governor, for the time being, to grant leave of absence to the Hon.

242 Rebellion in Jamaica.

Richard Barrett, as Assistant Judge of the Supreme Court, to proceed
to England without prejudice to his seniority.

" 6. — ^That this House grant leave of absence to their Speaker, the
Hon. Richard Barrett, and to the Hon. Abraham Hodgson, to visit
England, to lay their grievances at the foot of the Throne.

" 7. — That this House will elect a Speaker pro tempore (if necessary)
during the absence of the Hon. Richard Barrett, their Speaker.

8. Trial of the Editor of the Jamaica Watchman for a Capital

Felony.

There is an act of the legislature of Jamaica which declares that,
" if any person shall maliciously and advisedly endeavour to excite,
or stir up, any free person or slave to commit any act of insurrection
or rebellion, he shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of felony,
and shall suffer death, without benefit of clergy."

Under this act Mr. Jordon, the Editor of the Watchman, was on
the 17th of April last tried capitally, for having, in his paper of the
7th of the same month, used the following language : — " Now that
the member of Westmoreland (Mr. Beaumont) is on our side, we shall
be happy, with him and the other friends of humanity, to give a long
pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, until we bring down the
system by the run, knock off the fetters, and let the oppressed go
free."

He seems to have been saved from the martyrdom intended for him,
as the enemy of slavery and the friend of missions and missionaries,
only by a failure in the proof of editorship on the day laid in the
indictment.

n. — Rebellion in Jamaica.

In our No. 94 we took a review of the exciting causes of the late
commotion in Jamaica, and we traced its origin, as we conceive, not
to the rebellious spirit of the slaves, but to the rashness, and impru-
dence, and impetuosity of the white community, who seem actually to
have driven the slaves into insubordination and resistance. This con-
clusion seems to us to be confirmed by papers since laid before Parlia-
ment. Among these, in a document printed by order of the House
of Commons on the 16th March, 1832, numbered 285, is a Despatch
of the 1st of March, 1832, which Lord Goderich addressed to the
Earl of Belmore in reply to the details of the insurrection contained in
his despatch of the 6th of January preceding; the following are
extracts from it : —

" The proximate cause of the commotions in the parishes of St. James and
Trelawny, in the months of December and January last, is considered -by your
Lordship to have been the prevalency, amongst the slaves in those parishes, of
the opinion that some law had been enacted in this kingdom for their general
and immediate emancipation, which their owners had studiously concealed and
unanimously disobeyed ; and to the general adoption by the slaves of the further
■opinion that, in asserting their liberty by force, they were secure against the
hostility of his Majesty's naval and military forces, if indeed they could not
seasonably calculate on their assistance and co-operation. These misconceptions

Rebellion in Jamaica. 243

your Lordship traces to the various public discussions on the subject of slavery
by which the Colony had been agitated. In considering the view which you
have thus taken of the subject I have been led to cast a retrospect over the
events of the last nine years, so eventful in the history of the British West-
Indies."

His Lordship having then adverted to the various assurances given
by Lord Belmore in his despatches, during the course of 1831, of the
tranquillity prevailing among the slaves, and of the unusual excite-
ment existing among the planters, of which v^e have already given
some account (No. 94, p. 94 — 98, and p, 108), thus proceeds : —

" However little the slaves may in general be capable of reading, or have
the opportunity to read the public newspapers, yet it would be irrational to
doubt that rumours must circulate amongst them of the progress of a debate in
which they are so deeply interested, and that they must form many strange and
exaggerated conceptions of facts which are at once so often impressed and so
discoloured by the prejudices and passions of those who undertake to relate them.
From the various documents which accompany your Lordship's despatch it may,
with sufficient distinctness, be collected that, towards the end of the last year,
there prevailed generally amongst the slaves in St. James's and Trelawny the
opinion to wliich I have already refeixed, that a law had passed for their eman-
cipation which their owners had suppressed and disobeyed ; and that, in assert-
ing their freedom, the slaves might calculate upon the neutrality, if not upon the
assistance, of the king's naval and military forces. I further find that the exist-
ence of these misconceptions, known as they were to the resident magistracy and
proprietors, was not communicated to your Lordship, although your instructions
to the Custodes, of the month of July, had anxiously enjoined those officers to
convey to you any such intelligence ; and, lastly, it is but too evident that no
effiart was made by them to dispel the delusions under which the slaves were
thus known to be labouring.

" In confirmation of these statements I especially refer to Sir Willoughby
Cotton's despatch of the 5th of January, in which he observes ' that the over-'
seers, or attorneys, or magistrates, should not have acquainted the Executive
Government with the extent to which the determination of the Negroes had gone,
all round their district, not to work after New- Year's Day without being made
free, is most astonishing, as it would appear to have been known on almost all
the estates that these were the sentiments of the Negroes.' Mr. M'Donald, the
Custos of Trelawny, in his despatch of the 4th of January, says, ' If other gen-
tlemen had acted with the same kindness, and taken the same pains to explain
the real nature of things as I have done, I do not think that this unfortunate in-
surrection would have been so general.'

" Again, in his despatch of the 3rd January, Sir W. Cotton informed your
Lordship that the whole of the men shot yesterday stated that they had been
told by white people, for a long time past, that they were to be free at Christ-
mas, and that the freedom order had actually come out from England, but was
withheld.

" Similar statements abound in the documents before me. Yet it now appears
that, until the 22nd December, your Lordship had been left in such entire igno-
rance of those facts, that, at that late period, you, for the first time, thought it
necessary to publish his Majesty's proclamation, and in the very letter transmit-
ting it to the Custodes you referred to insubordination as existing only on a
single estate, and to ' the uninterrupted tranquillity which had hitherto prevailed
throughout the island.'

" I have entered thus at length into these details because they appear to me
most important in affording a solution of the causes to which, in part at least,
must be attributed the calamitous events which followed. After exhortations ,

244 ReBellion in Jamaica.

repeated by his Majesty's Government for more than eight successive years, vvrithout
effect ; after such public meetings as I have mentioned in every part of the island ;
after the circulation of the resolutions and public journals already noticed ; after
the convention of a body of delegates at the capital ; and after secret debates in
the House of Assembly, followed by the rejection of the measures proposed there
for the benefit of the slaves, it must have become to every reflecting man suffi-
ciently evident that the peace of the island was placed in extreme jeopardy, and
that the slaves could scarcely escape the infection of those opinions which they
appear to have adopted. How fraught with danger to the public safety was the
prevalence of such opinions among a people so ignorant and so easily excited it
were superfluous to remark. Induced, as they had been, to suppose that the
royal authority was opposed in their favour to that of their owners, and that de-
signs were entertained by the king's government which the colonial magistracy
and proprietors intended to counteract by force, the sense of supposed injustice,
combining with a plausible expectation of impunity in resisting it, could scarcely
fail to urge them to acts of open rebellion. That imder such circumstances the
proprietors should, in your Lordship's forcible terms, have been heedless * of the
brink of danger on which they stood ;' that, as the Custos of Trelawny remarks,
* they should not have taken pains to explain the real nature of things' to the
slaves, and that, regardless of your Lordship's repeated admonitions, they should
have left you in ignorance of the prevalent state of opinion amongst that class of
society, is, as Sir Willoughby Cotton justly observes, ' most astonishing.' It
were wholly irrational to suppose that any single person in Jamaica, much more
that any body of men, could be guilty of the incredible folly and wickedness of
deliberately concealing the truth, either from the slaves under their charge or from
the local government, with any settled design of bringing reproach on the mea-
sures of improvement so long in agitation. And I can ascribe the apathy which
seems to have prevailed to nothing but the ordinary influence of those feelings
which render men insensible to any risk, however formidable, with which habit
has rendered them familiar."

It is impossible to deny the justice of these observations. They
are in exact accordance with those which the notoriety of many of
the facts on which they are founded must have led any man of com-
mon sense to make, on what had occurred in Jamaica. In one respect,
however, we somewhat differ from his Lordship. We see no satis-
factory proofs exhibited that, previous to Christmas, the slaves had
entertained the idea of ceasing to labour on the plantations, how-
ever they might have been aware that the benevolent purposes of the
Government towards them were met by determined resistance on the
part of their masters ; or that the planters knew, or were impressed
with the belief, that the slaves had adopted any such idea. On the
contrary, we can discover, neither in Lord Belmore's despatch, nor in
any evidence we have yet seen, any proof which seems decisive, that
up to that period such a notion of ceasing to labour had prevailed
among the slaves generally, or that any such apprehensions were
entertained by the planters. Not even a surinise to that effect ap-
pears to have transpired until the disturbance had commenced and
was at its height. Then, indeed, we are told that such had been
the previous intentions of the slaves ; and that the existence of such
intentions had been for some time universally known to the planters.
But is this quite credible ? Was it possible that in a community
so constituted as that of Jamaica, at that time too in a state of pecu-
liar excitability, a dead and unbroken silence on this supremely inter-

Rebellion in Jamaica. 245

esting point, as if by common consent, should have prevailed among
all its free population — that not one journal, even in the disturbed
districts, should have alluded to the circumstance, or sounded the
note of alarm 1 The total absence of all prudent reserve, in their
ordinary communications, on which Lord Goderich so justly remarks,
forbids our giving implicit credit to the unsupported statements of the
planters, on which alone Sir Willoughby Cotton and Lord Belmore
found their representations, and the whole of whose statements may
have been, for any proof adduced to the contrary, a mere afterthought,
intended to hide from public view the really proximate and inciting
cause of the disturbance. The force of the previously-known and
unquestionable facts of the case ought not to be invalidated merely
by Sir W, Cotton's echo of the interested assertions of the planters of
St. James's and Trelawny, or his report of unauthenticated confes-
sions from some wretched slaves, when on the point of being hanged
or shot without record, and without trial.

This conviction is scarcely weakened by the evidence attached to
the Report of the Assembly inserted above, p. 235, and which has
been printed by Order of the House of Commons (28 June, 1832, No.
561), but which did not reach our hands until the foregoing sheet had
already been printed. Nothing can be conceived more utterly vague
and unsatisfactory than that evidence. It actually proves nothing
but the eager desire of the Committee of the Assembly to shift the
blame of the insurrection from their own shoulders to the Government,
the Missionaries, and the Saints. We should require nothing more
than the perusal of that mass of absurdity, and mere hearsay gossip,
to set that question at rest. And yet it is made the foundation,
the only foundation, in the Report of the Committee adopted by the
Assembly, for the very gravest charges, not only against his Majesty's
Government and Parliament, but against the Anti-Slavery Society,
the Baptists, the Wesleyan Methodists, and the Moravians. What
may we not suppose to have been the kind of evidence which satisfied
those Drum-head Courts Martial which have so unsparingly shed the
blood of the Negroes on this occasion 1 If they proceeded on such or
such like evidence, every execution must have been a Murder.

But, it may be asked, was it not natural that the slaves should have
been led to entertain such sentiments and intentions ? We do not
deny it. But still we think the evidence that they did entertain them,
and above all that they were known by the planters to entertain
them, is most unsatisfactorily established. That they were in a state
of great excitement, produced by the causes specified by Lord Gode-
rich, is highly probable ; but we can find no sufficient proof that any
plan had been formed by them of ceasing to labour on a particular
day, or of resorting to acts of insubordination in order to assert their
freedom. Of such a plan, or even of such an intention, no proof that
is tangible appears to us to have hitherto been produced. On the
contrary, nothing has appeared to show that if they had been left to
the enjoyment of their usual Christmas holidays in the parish of St.
James and Trelawny, and in those immediately adjoining, as there
is reason to believe they were in the other parts of the Island, they

2 K

246 Rebellion in Jamaica.

would not have quietly resumed their labours as they had always been
accustomed to do when those holidays had expired.

This interference with the usual holidays indicated so much of utter
insanity on the part of the planters that Lord Goderich refuses to cre-
dit the possibility of such a circumstance, and, in the absence of any
direct reference to it by Lord Belmore, he calls for farther proof.
And yet the evidence stated by us in our former number (No. 94, pp.
99 — 103) seems, in the absence of better information, to be almost
irrefragable. Lord Goderich indeed states that he had been able to
discover only two overt acts of violence indicating a rebellious spirit
before the Christmas holidays. But he goes on to observe : —

" Your Lordship will find, on reference to my despatch of 16th June last, a
remark upon the Slave Act of the preceding February, which I shall here tran-
scribe : — ' The former statute declares that, for the future, all slaves in the island
shall be allowed the usual seasons of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. It
is now enacted that they shall be allowed the usual holidays of Christmas and
Easter. Thus the three annual holidays are reduced to two, and the slave is
deprived of the security formerly given to him that he should enjoy the usual
number of such days.' ^

" When writing this passage, I was strongly impressed with the importance
and danger of such an innovation, knowing that the value of a holiday could not
be correctly estimated, except by endeavouring to enter into the feelings of those
who were to enjoy or to lose it, and believing that the slaves would attach to this
very ancient privilege an importance which, to persons in a very different condi-
tion of life, might easily appear exaggerated.

" In the year 1831 the 25th of December was a Sunday, and, that being a day
privileged on other grounds, the slaves, as appears from Mr. Annand's statement,
conceived themselves entitled to the three following days — a pretension very rea-
sonable in itself, and to which it appears Mr. Annand consented, on condition
that the gang should first turn out. He says that, before the demand was made,
he had ordered them to turn out to work. On referring to the despatch of the
Gustos of Trelawny of the 28th of December (the Wednesday already mentioned)
I find the following passage : — ' I believe nine-tenths of the whole slave popula-
tion have this morning refused to turn out to work.' The refusal, of course, pre-
supposes the demand ; and it must be inferred, from the expressions employed
by the Gustos, that the demand was addressed'to at least nine-tenths of the po-
pulation. That the words of the new law might be urged in defence of this
innovation I do not deny; but the impolicy of innovating upon such a subject is
but the more strongly impressed on my mind by that circumstance. What effect
this attempted abridgment of the usual relaxation of Christmas may have had,
or whether it contributed at all to the subsequent revolt, are conclusions which,
in my present state of information, I do not feel myself warranted to draw. It
is, however, most important that your Lordship's attention should be directed to
the subject, in order that a ground of discontent so easily removed may no longer
be permitted to exasperate the slaves. The season of Whitsuntide is not very
remote, and I greatly dread the effect which may be produced on the minds
of the Negroes when they shall, for the first time, experience the loss of that
holiday."

Now it is perfectly plain that the "refusal" of the slaves to turn
out on this holiday, as we have proved (No. 94, p. 101), was regarded
by the planters as " actual rebellion : " and, in order to quell it, un-
sparing military execution was at once resorted to. The head and
front of their offending in the first instance, therefore, appears to be
that, having been ordered to turn out into the field on the Wednesday

Rebellion in Jamaica. 247

morning, they did not do so, conceiving the order to be unwarranted ;
and had the matter been passed over, as it ought to have been, there,
in all probability, the disobedience would have terminated : they
would have had the day they reasonably claimed, and, on the suc-
ceeding day, to which they made no claim, they would probably have
been found quietly at their work, as at other times, and in other
parishes. But, in the mean time, the attack and the massacre had
commenced. The slaves, terrified, fled to the woods. And what
else could they do? Flight seemed their only means of safety from
indiscriminate slaughter ; but this very flight was made an aggrava-
tion of their crime. They were first causelessly treated as rebels, for
refusing to comply with what they deemed an illegal demand ; and
then the attempt to escape summary execution as rebels, by
quitting the plantation, was regarded as proving them rebels. They
were first assumed to be so, and the flight which followed the attack
on them as such is adduced as proof of the assumption.

It is difficult for men unacquainted with the peculiar structure of
society in a slave colony to conceive what the effect Avould be of let-
ting loose a body of armed planters on an unarmed black population
which has dared to indicate, by common consent, any hesitation to
obey the master's will, or to assume an attitude of resistance to it,
however passive. Their rage and resentment would know no bounds;
and it is impossible to estimate the atrocities which these might tend to
produce. Nor will any one who knows what human nature is be sur-
prised that the terror, and dismay, and suffering of the slaves, caused
by such atrocities, should excite, in the minds at least of many of
them, feelings of exasperation and revenge, sharpened by all they
already knew of the wishes of the Government towards them, and of
the contumacious and rebellous resistance of the planters to those
wishes. Hence, without arms, or other means of annoyance or de-
fence, they would naturally and almost necessarily resort, as their
sole weapon of retaliation, to nocturnal conflagration (for from blood
they seem to have shrunk), every act of which would serve to inflame
still more the fury and vengeance of the dominant party. What could
be expected under such circumstances, but the scenes of slaughter and
of desolation which have marked this unhappy movement ? Fear is
the most cruel of all passions ; and blind terror, on the part of both
planter and slave, was here in full and destructive operation.

Let it be remembered, too, that our only details of these transac-
tions are from the planters. But every part even of these details
manifests that contempt of Negro rights and feelings, and that in-
difference to Negro life, which Negro Slavery always does and always
must generate in the breasts of those who administer it. Its corrupting
influence is there awfully and characteristically exhibited, and extends
not only to the slaves themselves, but to all who dare to indicate any
sympathy in their sufferings.

We could exemplify this position by innumerable extracts from the
journals of Jamaica during the first three months of the present
year, but we forbear. In the mean time we greatly desiderate lists of
the killed and wounded on both sides.

Some of the concluding paragraphs in the despatch are particu-

248 Rebellion in Jamaica.

larly deserving of the attention of the public. We quote them with
much satisfaction.

" I am aware that to persevere in the measures announced in my despatch of
the 10th December, at the present moment, may possibly be described as preg-
nant with imminent danger. I still, however, think that his Majesty's Govern-
ment could not desist from urging the proposed measures of relief, and that the
Colonial Legislature could not reject that proposal without incurring another
danger, at least as imminent. Throughout this protracted controversy the voice of
dispassionate reason has, unhappily, been seldom heard or heeded amidst the
violent invectives with which the contending parties have mutually assailed each
other. It is at once my duty and my earnest desire to inculcate on all parties a
spirit of moderation and mutual forbearance, and to warn them of the inevitable
calamities which must follow if interests so momentous shall continue to be made
the sport of angry passions. In considering the situation of the gentlemen with
whom the legislative authority in Jamaica resides, I cannot forget the difficulties
with which they have to contend, nor employ any other language than that of
conciliation and respect; yet I would wish, with the utmost earnestness, to im-
press upon them that they cannot safely overlook the state of society and of pub-
lic opinion throughout the civilised world, and especially in this kingdom. Were
they resident here they would need no assurance of mine to convince them' that
the views of his Majesty's Government on the subject of Negro Slavery are in har-
mony with those of Parliament and the nation at large, and that, during|a dis-
cussion of nine years' continuance, men of all ranks have been progressively
acquiring a more uniform and firm conviction of the soundness of those views.
It were a fatal mistake to suppose that the voice of the country at large on this
subject is nothing more than the transient clamour of a small but importunate
party ; yet it is an error into which, at such a distance, the local Legislature may
not improbably fall.

" To claims unjust and unreasonable in themselves it is doubtless the duty of
Government to oppose a stedfast resistance. Even the most moderate and rea-
sonable demands, when enforced by open violence and insurrection, must be re-
sisted, until the dominion of the law has been vindicated and established ; but,
that indispensable duty being performed, it remains that what is reasonably de-
manded should be conceded with frankness. The present calamity might prove
to be but the precursor of disasters still more lamentable, should it fail to convince
the local Legislature that the time for concession has fully come, and that the
opportunity of conceding with dignity and safety may, ere long, be irretrievably
lost. Under the influence of erroneous opinions, and of a passing excitement,
the slaves may have indeed advanced claims which it is impossible to admit ;
but neither the extravagance with which some hopes may have been indulged,
nor the violence with which some designs may have been expressed, can afford
any just answer to the more sober and moderate claims which are made on their
behalf, and to which, with the aid of better information, they will probably reduce
their demands.

" His Majesty, therefore, cannot revoke the instructions which your Lordship
will have already received on the subject of Negro Slavery. If, however, the
events which have formed the subject of this despatch should have compelled
you to suspend the execution of the orders you have received, you have his per-
mission to continue that suspension until the restoration of general tranquillity ;
but you will take the earliest occasion, after internal peace shall have been
re-established, for again directing the attention of the Council and the Assembly
to the subject."

We need hardly say that the despatch of Lord Goderich throws utter
discredit on the unfounded suspicions of a participation, on the part of
the missionaries, in any measure for aiding or fomenting this disturbance..

London: Printed by S. Bagbter, Jun., 14, Bartholomew CJose.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 100.]

SEPTEMBER 1, 1832.

[Vol. V. No. IL

A Detailed View of the progress of Population among the Slaves

IN THE SEVERAL SlAVE CoLONIES OF GrEAT BriTAIN, SINCE THE FIRST

institution of the system OF Registration ; avith Observations

THEREON.

The following view of the progress of population among the Slaves in the
•Colonies of Great Britain was drawn up by Mr, Buxton, from official docu-
ments laid before the House of Commons. These consist either of Parlia-
mentary Papers moved for by the House and printed by its order, and of which
the year, and the numbers as they stand on the documents of that year, are
given ;— or of Papers presented to both houses of Parliament by the Com-
mand of His Majesty, and which have no numbers attached to them. The
former are distinguished by the letters P. P. ; the latter by the letters P. C.

Notwithstanding the pains which have been taken to attain perfect accuracy,
by closely following the official statements throughout, yet it is possible that
some errors may have crept in, as the statements themselves are occasionally
defective, and in some instances discrepant. In those cases, however, the
conclusion the least unfavourable to the Colonists has been invariably adopted,
and the utmost care has thus been taken to avoid all exaggeration in exhibit-
ing the evils of the Slave system.

ANTIGUA.

1817. Dec, 31. Population {a) , . 32,269
Imports in 11 years (6) 112

32,381

1828. Dec. 31. Population (c) , . . '29,83©
Manumissions in 11 years (d) 1,561
Exports in 11 years (e) . . 113

Decrease in 11 years

31,513

52,381

a. See P. P., No. 424 of 1824 . . .

b. Ditto, No. 89 of 1823; for imports

from 1818 to 1821 ...'..
Average of the preceding four years,

taken for 1822, 1823, and 1824 .
Subsequently, Nil

Imports in 11 years

c. See P. P., No. 237 of 1829, and

No. 674 of 1830

d. Ditto, No. 89 of 1823; for Manu-

missions from 1818 to 1820 . .

Carried up

64
48

112

433
433

Brought up 433
See P. P., No. 204 of 1828 ; for ma-
numissions from 1821 to 1826 . . 953
Ditto, of July, 1831 ; for 1827 and

1828 175

Manumissions in 1 1 years . 1,561

e See P. P., No. 89 of 1823, for exports

from 1818 to 1821 65

Average of the preceding four years,

taken for 1822 1823, and 1824 . 48

Subsequently, Nil

2 L

Expoits in 11 y-ears 115

250

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.
BERBICE.

1817. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . 24,549
Imports in 10 years (/;) 529

25,078

1827. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . . 21,319
Manumissions in 10 years (d) 292

Exports in 10 years (e) . . 1,845

Decrease in 10 years

23,445
1,633

25,078

a. See P.P., No. 424 of 1824 . . .

h. Ditto, No.89of 1823; for 1819, 1820

Ditto, No. 353 of 1826; for 1821 to

1825

Ditto, P. C, of July, 1831, for 1826
and 1827

Imports in 10 years

c. P. P., No. 237 of 1829 . . . .

d. Ditto,No.89, of 1823. Manumissions

for 1818, 1819, and 1820 ....

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826 ; from 1 Jan.

1821 to 1 Nov. 1826

Carried up

Brought up 138
P. C, 1828, p. 191; 1 Nov. 1826 to

31 March, 1827 56

Ditto,p.237; lAprilto3Aug, 1827 75
P. P., No. 335, of 1829; 1 Sept. to

31 Dec. 1827 23

Manumissions in 10 years . 292

P. P., No. 89, of 1823, for 1818,

1819, and 1820 1004

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826. for 1821,

1822, 1823, 1824, and 1825 . . 810

Ditto,P.C.ofJuly 1831; for 1826,1827 20

Exports in 10 years 1834

DEMERARA.

1817. May 31. Population (a) . . 77,867

Imports in 12 year's {b) 5,508

83,375

1829. May31. Population (c) . , . 69,467
Manumissions in 12 yrs. (d) 1,640
Exports in 12 years (e) . 231

71,338
Decrease in 12 years 12,037

83,375

a. See P.P., No. 424, of 1824. . .

b. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823, p.73. Imports,

1 Jan. 1817, to 30 Sept. 1821
Ditto,No.353,ofl826,p.l63. lOct.,
1821, to 31 Dec, 1824 ....
. Subsequently, Nil

4,252
1,256

Imports in 11 years 5,508

SeeP.P., No.674, of 1830 . . .
. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumissions

from 31 May 1817 to 31 Dec. 1820
Ditto, No.353, of 1826, p.l66,andNo.

128,of 1827,p.27, froml Jan.1821

to 31 May, 1826 ,

P, C, of 1827, p. 144, and 145, from

1 June, 1826, to 31 Oct. 1826 . .
Ditto, p. 145; from 1 Nov. 1826, to

1 May, 1827

Carried up

107

385
247
177
916

Brought up 916
1 May, 1827, to 30 April, 1828. No
returns, but assumed to be at the
rate of the preceding six months . 354
P. P.,No.335, ofl829,p. ll.froml

May, to 31 Oct. 1828 .... 185
1 Nov. 1828, to 31 May, 1829. No
returns, but assumed to be at the
rate of the preceding six months . 185

Manumissions in 12 years . 1,640

e. See P. P., No. 89, of 1823. Exports

for 1817 to 1821 138

Ditto, No. 53, of 1826,for 1822 to 1824 93

Exports in 11 years 231
N.B. Neither imports nor exports are given
after Dec. 1824. It might be thought to swell
the amount unfairly to take the average of pre-
ceding years, for 1825 ; it is therefore omitted.

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.
GRENADA.

251

1817. Dec.31. Population (o) . . . 28,029
Imports in 12 years (&) 223

28,254

1829. Dec.31. Population (c) . . . 24,145
Manumissions in 12 years (d) 896

Exports in ditto (e) 698

Decrease in 12 years

25,739
2,515

28,254

a. SeeP.P., No.424,of 1824 . . .

b. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Imports from

1 Jan. 1818 to 31 Dec. 1820 . .
Ditto, 353, of 1826 : 1 Jan. 1821 to

Aug. 1824

Subsequently, Nil

Imports in 12 years . .

c. SeeP.P., No. 305, of 1831 . . .

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumis-

sions from 1 Jan. 1818 to Dec. 31,
1820

Carried

up

142
83

225

294
294

Brought up 294
Ditto, No. 353, of 1826, p. 356.1 Jan,

1821 to Dec. 31, 1825 .... 321
Ditto, of July, 1831. from 1 Jan.

1826 to Dec. 31, 1829 .... 281

Manumissions in 12 years 896

e. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Exports for

1818 to 1820 204

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826 ; for 1821 to

1824 494

Subsequently, Nil

Exports in 12 years 698

JAMAICA.

1817. Dec.31. Population (a) . . .346,150
Imports in 12 years (6) 1,080

347,230

1829. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . 322,421
Manumissions in 12 years (d) 6,030
Exports in 12 years (e) . . 705

Decrease in 12 years

329,156
18,074

347,230

a. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824 . . .

6. Ditto, No. 347, of 1823, andNo.353,
of 1826. Imports from 1 Jan. 1818

to Dec. 31, 1825 1167

Ditto, of July 1831; from 1 Jan. 1826

to 31 Dec. 1829 13

Imports in 12 years 1080

e. See P. P., No. 305 of 1831 . . .

i. Ditto, No. 302, of 1832; Manumis-
sions from 1 Jan. 1818 to June,

1824 3522

P. P., No. 302, of 1831; from June

to Dec. 1824 223

Carried up 3745

Brought up 3745
Ditto, No. 365 of 1832; for from 1825

to 1829 . 2285-

Manumissions in 12 years 6030

e. P. P., No. 347, of 1823. Exports for

1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, and 1822 497

P. P., of July 1831; for 1825, 1826,

1827, 1828, and 1829 .... 10

There are no returns for 1823 and
1824, but, assuming the average of
the five preceding years that are
given, it will make 198

Exports in 12 year* 705

252

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies^
. ' MONTSERRAT.

1817. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . . 6,610
Imports in 11 years (ft) 12

6,622

1828. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . . 6,262
Manumissions in 11 years (rf) 135
Exports in 11 years (e) . . 94

Decrease in 11 years .

6,491
131

6,662

a. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824 . .

5. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Imports from

Dec. 1817 to Dec. 1821 . . .

Ditto, No. 204, of 1828 ; for 1823

and 1824

Imports in 11 years. . .

e: See P. P., No. 674, of 1830: . .
d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumis

sions for 1818, 1819, and 1820
Ditto, No. 128, of 1827 ; from June

1821 to June 1826 ....

Carried up

12

43

62

105

Brought up 105

There being no returns from June,
1826, to Dec. 1828, the average
of the five preceding years is
assumed 30

Manumissions in 11 years 135

e. See P. P., No. 89, of 1823.
Exports from June 1818 to Dec.

1820 69

Ditto, No. 204, of 1828 ; from Jan,

1821 to Dec. 1824 25

Exports in 11 years 94

NEVIS.

:I817. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . 9,602
Imports in 11 year (ft) 79

9,631

1828. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . . 9,259'
Manumissionsinllyrs. (d) 146
Exports in ditto (e) . . 84

Decrease in 11 years

9,489
192

9,681

a.. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824 . . .

b. Ditto of July 1831. Imports from Jan.

1825, to Dec. 1828 ..... 79

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830 . . .

Brought up 99

P. P., of July 1831 ; for ditto, from

Nov. 30, 1825, to 31 Dec. 1828 . 47

Imports in 11 years

79

d.: Assumed average of Manumissions

from Jan. 1818 to Dec. 1820 . . 42
J". P., No.353, of 1826 ; for ditto, from

1 Jan.. 1821 to Nov. 30, 1825 . . 57

Manumissions in 11 years 146

e See P. P., No. 353, of 1826. Exports

from 1 Jan. 1821, to 31 Dec. 1825 64
Papers of July, 1831, from 1 Jan.

1826 to 31 Dec. 1828 .... 20

Carried up

901'

Exports in 11 j'^ears 84

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.

ST. CHRISTOPHER'S.

253

1817. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . 20,168
• Imports in 10 years (6) 74

20,242

1827. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . 19,310*
Manumissions in lOyrs.(d) 629
Exports in ditto (e) . . 203

Decrease in 10 years

20,142
100

20,242

a. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824.

b. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823, and No. 353,

of 1826. Imports from 31 Dec. 1817

to 1 October 1825

Ditto, of July, 1831 ; for from 1 Oct.
1825 to 31 Dec. 1828

58

16

Imports in 10 years 74

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830.

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumissions

for 1818, 1819, and 1820 ... 190
Ditto, No. 128, of 1827, for 1822,

1823, 1824, and 1825 .... 264

Carried up 454

Brought up
Per. Mr. Amyott's Letter, of Dec.
31, 1831— for 1826 and 1827 .

e. See P. P., No. 89, of 1823. Exports

for 1818 to 1821

Ditto,No.353, of 1826 ; for 1823,1824

Ditto, of July 1831 ; for 1825, 1826,

and 1827 .

454

175

Manumissions in 10 yrs. 629

160

18

Exports in 10 years 203

In P. P., No. 582, of 1830, the Re-
gistrar reports the Population of 1827
at 18,119, being 1,191 less.

ST, LUCIA.

1815. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . .16,285
Imports in 13 years (&). 188

16,473

1828. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . . 13,661
Manumissions in 13 yrs. (d) 844
Exports ditto (e) . . . . 26

Decrease in 13 years

14,531

1,942

16,473

a. SeeP. P., No. 424, of 1824.

h. The Imports for the years 1816 to

1821 are taken at the average of the

four succeeding years ....

P. P., No. 204, of 1828, Imports

from Jan. 1, 1821, to Jan. 18 1825

Imports in 13 years

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830.

d. Ditto, No. 204, of 1828. Manumis-

sions from Jan. 1 , 1816, to May 31,
1328

105

83

188

762

Carried up 762

Brought up 762
Ditto, No. 262, of 1831. from June 1,

to Dec. 31, 1828 60

Ditto, No. 335, of 1829, p. 37. free

baptisms in preceding years . , 22

Manumissions in 13 years 844-

e. P. P.,No.204ofl828; Exports Dec.

31, 1815, to Dec. 31, 1828. . , 26
Subsequently, Nil.

Exports in 13 years 26

254

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.
ST. VINCENT'S.

1817. Dec. 31. Population (n)
Imports (ft) .

25,218
918

26,136

1827. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . . 23,589
ManumissionsinlOyi'S.(<i) 540
Exports in 10 years (e) . 779

Decrease in 10 years

24,908
1,228

26,136

a. See P. P., No. 424.. of 1824.

h. P.P., No. 353, of 1826; from iJan.

1821 to 31 Dec. 1824 ....
Average of the above four years; for

Imports for 1818 to 1821 . , .
Subsequently, Nil

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830.

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumis-

sions for 1818, 1819, and 1820 ,

525
393

Imports in lO years 918

68

Carried up 68

Brought up 68
Ditto, No. 353, of 1826. from iJ an.

1821 to 31 Dec. 1825 .... 380
Ditto, of July 1831. from iJan. 1826

to 31 Dec. 1827 92

Manumissions in 10 years 540

There is no return of the Exports for
1818, 1819, and 1820, but the aver-
age of the following years is taken

P. P., No. 353, of 1826 ; from 1 Jan.
1821 to 1 Jan. 1825

Subsequently, Nil

333

446

Exports in 10 years 779

TOBAGO.

1819. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . . 15,470
Imports in 10 years {h) 230

15,700

1829. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . . 12,556
Manumissions in 10 yrs.(d) 268
Exports in ditto (e) . . . 73

12,897
Decrease in 10 years 2,803

15,700

a. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824.

b. There being no return of Imports for

1820 the average of the five sub-
sequent years is assumed . . .

P. P., No. 353, of 1826 ; Imports
from Jan. 1821 to Nov. 10, 1825 .

P. P., of 1831 ; from Nov. 1825 to
Dec. 1829

Imports in 10 years . . .

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830.

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823, Manumis-

sions for 1820

156

43
230

Carried up 4

Brought up
Ditto, No. 353, of 1826 ; for 1821

to 1825

Ditto, of July 1831 ; for 1826 to 1829

Exports in 10 3'ears

228
36

Manumissions in 10 years 268

e. There being no return of Exports for
1820 the average of the five subse-
quent years is taken 5

See P. P., No. 353, of 1826. Exports

from Jan. 1821 to Nov. 1825 . . 22
P. P., of July 1831 ; from Nov. 1825
to Dec. 1829

46

73

Progress of Population in the Sugar ■Colonies.
TORTOLA.

255

5818. Dec. 31. Population (a) . . . 6,899
Imports in 10 years, Nil (fo)

6,899

1828. Dec. 31. Population (c) ... 5,399
Manumissions in 10 yrs.((i) 216
Exports in ditto (e) . . 1,141

6,756
Decrease in 10 years 143

6,899

a. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824.
h. Ditto, presented July 15, 1831.

c. Ditto, No. 305, of 1831.

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumissions

for 1819, 1820, 1821, and 1822 .
Ditto, No. 128, of 1827; for 1823,

1824, and 1825

Ditto, papers of July 15, 1831 ; for
r. 1826, 1827, and 1828 . . . .

71

68

77

Manumissions in 10 jf-ears 216

e. See P.P., No. 89, of 1823; for ex-
ports of 1819 3

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826 ; for 1820 to

1824 1,128

Ditto, Papers of July 1831 ; for 1825

to 1828 10

Exports in 10 years 1,141

1815. 31. Jan. Population (a)

Imports in 13 years (6) 6,466

TRINIDAD.

25,544 1828. Jan. 31. Population (c)

32,010

. 24,006
Manumissions in 13 yrs. (d) 1,716
Exports in ditto (e) . . 120

Decrease in 13 years

25,842
6,168

32,010

a. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824

6. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Imports from

31 Jan. 1815, to 31 Dec. 1821 . 3,470
Ditto, No. 353, of 1826 ; for from

1 Jan. 1822, to 31 Dec. 1825 . 2,503
Ditto of July 1831 ; for from 1 Jan.

1826, to 31 Jan. 1828 .... 493

Imports in 13 years 6,466

c. See P. P., No. 305, of 1831.

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumis-

sions for from 1815 to 1820 . . 751
Do., No. 128, of 1827 ; for 1821 to 1825 631

Carried up 1,382

Brought up 1,382
See P. P., of July 1831 ; for 1826 and

1827 334

Manumissions in 13 years 1 ,716

e. See P. P., No. 89, of 1823. Exports

from 1815 to 1822 112

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826 ; for 1823,
1824, and 1825, Nil

Ditto, of July 1831; for 1826, 1827,

and 1828 8

Exports in 13 years 120

^56

Prof/ress of Population in the Sugar Colonic;.
MAURITIUS.

1815. Dec. 31. Population (a)
Imports (/))

87,352 ' 1826. Oct. 16. Population (c) . . 76,774*
1,890 Manumissions (d) . . 977

Exports (e) . . . . 724

89,242

78,475
Decrease in 10| years 10,767

89,242

a. See P. P., No. 89, of 1823, p. 129.

b. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823, page 123,

Imports for 1818, 1819, and 1820 243
Ditto, No. 204, of 1828; for from 1st

Jan. 1821, to 10th April 1826 . . 1,647

Imports in lOf years 1,890

c. See P. P., No. 237, of 1829 . . .

d. See P. C, 1828, page 367. Manu-

missions from 1 Jan. 1816, to 31

Dec. 1826, being for 11 years . . 977

e. See P. P., No. 89, of 1823, page 124

Exportsforl818, 1819,1820,1821,

and 1822 . 418

Ditto, No. 204, of 1828 ; for 1823,
1824, 1825, and 1826 306

Exports in lOf years 724

* On examiningthe P. P., No. 333, of 30
March, 1832, it appears that there must be
some mistake in the above return of Oct. 16,
1826, the final number registered for the Mau-
ritius being 69,472 (see p. 79), and for its
dependencies 6,522 (p. 33), making together
only 75,994, instead of 76,774, being a farther
diminution of 780, or of 11,547 in all. By a
further return, dated 2nd Jan. 1830, the popu-
lation appears to have much diminished dur-
ing the three years preceding, the numbers
in the Mauritius by that return being stated
to be 66,183, instead of 69,472 in Oct. 1826,
showing a decrease in that time of 3,289 (in-
cluding about 1150 manumissions) ; and this
independently of the large illicit importations
said to have taken place since 1815.

1817. Dec. 31. Population (a) . .
Imports in 9 years (6)

Increase in 9 years

DOMINICA

1826

17,959
4

17,963
11

17,974

Dec. 31. Population (c)
Manumissions in 9 years (d)
Exports in 9 years («j) . .

15,392

400

2,182

17,974

a. See P. P., No. 424, 1824 ....

b. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Imports for

1818 to 1821

Subsequently, Nil

Imports for 9 years . . .

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830.

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. and No. 853,

of 1826. Manumissions from 1

Jan. 1818, to 31 Dec. 1825 . .

Ditto, ot July 1831 ; from 1 Jan. to

31 Dec. 1826

Manumissions in 9 years

341

59

400

See P. P., No. 89, of 1823. Exports
from 1 Jan. 1818, to 31 Dec. 1820 . 1,656

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826. from 1 Jan.

1821, to April 1823 296

There is no return from April 1823,
to Dec. 1824 ; but the average of
the preceding 2^ years is taken . 230

Subsequently, Nil

Exports in 9 years 2,182

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.
BARBADOES.

-Zbl

1817". Dec. 31. Population (a) . . . 77,493
Imports in 12 years (6) 91

Increase in 12 years

77,584
5,966

83,550

1829. Dec. 31. Population (c) . . .81,902
Manumissions in 12 years (d) . 1,400
Exports in 12 years (e) . . ^ 248

83,550

o. See P. P., No. 424, of 1824 . . .
6. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Imports for

1818 to 1820 53

Ditto, No. 353, of 1826; for 1821

to 1825 25

. Ditto, of July 1831 ; from Jan. 1826

to Dec. 1829 13

Imports for 12 years . . 91

c. See P. P., No. 674, of 1830 . . .

d. Ditto, No. 89, of 1823. Manumissions

for 1818 to 1820 412

Ditto, No. 128, of 1827; for 1821 to

1825 _ 421

Carried up 833

Brought up 833
See P. P., of July 1831 ; for 1826

to 1829 567

Manumissions in 12 years . 1,400

e. See P. P., No. 353, of 1826. Exports

for 1821 to 1824 164

Ditto, of July 1831 ; for 1825 to

1829 .. ^ ...... . 84

Exports in 12 years .

248

I

RECAPITULATION.

Antigua

Decrease ir

1 11 years

868

Berbice

ditto

10 ditto

. 1,633

Demerara

ditto

12 ditto

12,037

Grenada .

ditto

12 ditto

. 2,515

Jamaica

ditto

12 ditto .

18,074

Montserrat

ditto

11 ditto

. 131

Nevis .

ditto

11 ditto

192

St. Christopher's .

ditto

10 ditto

. 100

St. Lucia

ditto

13 ditto

1,942

St. Vincent's

ditto

10 ditto

. 1,228

Tobago

ditto

10 ditto

2,803

Tortola .

ditto

10 ditto

. 143

Trinidad

ditto

13 ditto

6,168

Decrease in the above 13 Colonies, the average being 11,'3 years 47,834
Mauritius . . Decrease in lOf years . . 10,767

Deduct. Increase in the two following Colonies, viz. —

Dominica . . in 9 years . . 11

Barbadoes . . in 12 years . . 5,966

58,601

5,977

Total decrease in the Slave Population in the Sugar Colonies, gg ma
on nn average of eleven years . . . . '

258

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.

We have already informed our readers at the beginning of this article that, in
drawing up the preceding statements, where there has been a difference in the official
returns, those have been taken which show the smallest decrease in the Slave Population.
For example : — There is a difference between the return from the Registrar's Office abroad,
and the return from the Office in England, of the Population of Demerara. The Colonial
return states the Population, in 1817, to have been 79,197 (see P. P., No. 89 of 1823, p.
101) : the return from the Office at home states it, at the same date, to be 77,867 (see P. P.,
No. 424 of 1824). The latter return has been taken : the former would have shown a further
decrease, inaddition to the 12,037, of 1,380, and made the whole decrease in twelve years 13,417.

So of St. Christopher's : the Slave Population of that island, according to the returns from
the Colony, was, on the 31st Dec. 1827, 18,119 (see P. P., No. 582 of 1830) ; whilst the re-
turn from the Office at home states it to have been 19,310 (see P. P., No. 674 of 1830),
Here the latter number has been taken. Had the fonner been taken, an addition would have
been made to the decrease, as shown in the above tables, of 1,191.

The Manumissions in Jamaica, according to the P. P., No. 302 of 1831, were, from June
1826, to Dec, 1829, 5l5. In the P. P., No. 365 of 1832, they are stated to have been 2,285,
which is the number assumed in the above statement (p. 251). Had the former number been
adopted, the large decrease already shown to have taken place in this island of 18,074, would
have had an addition of 1,770, making in all 19,844.

In respect to the returns from the Mauritius, see a note above, p. 256,

Retwn of the Slave Population, showing the respective numbers of the Males and Females,
in the following Colonies, in the years as stated below, viz.

Years

Men.

Women.

Totals,

Antigua (See P.P., No. 424 of 1124)

1817

15,053

17,216

32,269

Barbadoes ... ...

1817

35,354

32,139

77,493

Berbice ... ...

1817

13,802

13,747

24,549

Demerara ... ...

1817

44,137

43,730

77,867

Dominica ... ...

1817

8,624

9,335

17,959

Grenada ... ...

1817

13,737

14,222

28,029

Jamaica .... ...

1817

173,319

172,831

346,150

Montserrat ... ...

1817

3.047

3,563

6,610

Nevis ... ...

1817

4,685

4,917

9,602 •

St. Christopher's ... ...

1817

9,685

10,483

20,168

St. Lucia ... ...

1815

7,394

8,891

16,285

St. Vincent's ... ...

1817

12,743

12,475

25,218

Tobago ... ...

1819

7,633

7,837

15,470

Trinidad ... ...

1815

14,133

11,411

25,544

Tortola

1818

3,231

3,668

6,899

Totals. West India Sugar Colonies

366,577

363,535

730,112

Mauritius (See P. P., No. 89 of 1823)

Total slaves in the Sugar Colonies, in or about 1817

1815

56,684

33,668

87,352

423,261

394,203

817,464

The remaining Slaves in the British Colonies, about

the same period, were the following, viz : —

Bahamas (P. P. No, 424 of 1824)

1822

5,529

5,279

10,808

Bermuda (ditto ditto)

1820

2,505

2,671

5,176

Cape of Good Hope (ditto No 512 of 1829)

1829

20,098

13,743

33,841

Honduras* (ditto No. 439 of 1824)

Total Slaves in the British Colonies, in or about 1817

1826

1,400

1,200
416,096

2,606

452,793

868,889

* The number of males and females has not been
given officially. We assume the above proportions.

,

Progress of Population in the Sugar Colonies.
The following are the Latest Returns from all the Colonies.

259

Colonies.

Antigua .

Barbadoes

Berbice .

Demerara

Dominica

Grenada .

Jamaica .

Montserrat

Nevis

St. Christopher's

St. Lucia .

St. Vincents

Tobago

Trinidad .

Tortola . .

Total in

Mauritius

See Parliamentary Papers.' Years.

No. 674,

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.
No. 305,

Do.
No. 674,

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.
No. 305,

Do.

Do.

of 1830.

of do.

of do.

of do.

of do.

of 1831.

of do.

of 1830.

of do.

of do.

of do.

of do.

of 1831.

of do.

of do.

W. India Sugar Colonies
No. 674, of 1830.

Total in all the Sugar Colonies
Bahamas . . No. 305, of 1831.

Bermuda . . No. 674, of 1830.

Cape of Good Hope . No. 400, of 1826.
Honduras . .1 No. 582, of 1830.

Total Slaves in British Colonies by the latest returns
* The exports from this Colony, and also from
Bermuda, have been larger than those given in the
official returns, but how much is not known.

1828
1829
1828
1829
1826
1829
1829
1828
1826
1827
1828
1827
1830
1828
1828

1826

1828
1828
1826
1829

Men.

Women.

Totals.

14,066

15,773

29,839

37,691

44,211

81,902

11,284

10,035

21,319

37,141

32,326

69,467

7,362

8,030

15,392

11,711

12,434

24,145

158,254

164.167

322,421

2,867

3,395

6,262

4,574

4,685

9,259

9,198

10,112

19,310

6,280

7,381

13,661

11,583

12,006

23,589

5,872

6,684

12,556

13,141

10,865

24,006

2,510

2,889
344,993

5,399

333,534

678,527

47,657

29,117

76,774

381,191

374,110

755,301

5,549

5,292

10,841*

2,208

2,400

4,608

21,210

14,299

35,509

1,300

1,155

2,455

411,453

397,256

808,714

THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON.

May 1st, 1832.

OBSERVATIONS.

The West Indians have attempted to explain the above large de^
crease of the slave population in the British Sugar Colonies on prin-
ciples which they think may save their system from a share of its.
opprobrium. To these explanations the following reply may be
made : —

1st. — It is alleged that that decrease depends on the number of
imported Africans still existing in those Colonies. They argue that
the Africans are not prolific ; — that they constantly decrease^ while the
Creoles increase; — and that we may anticipate that when all the
Africans shall have died off, and the whole of the slaves shall be
Creoles, we shall have an increasing, and not a decreasing population.

This argument was produced first by the Registrar of Demerara,
in a detailed account which he published of the five triennial registra-
tions which had taken place in that colony. It appears also in the evi-
dence of the recent Committee on West India distress, p. 96. It was
countenanced by Colonel Young, the Protector of slaves in the same

260 Observations on the progress of the Slave Population.

colony, in his report, dated 19th of May, 1829. And, lastly, it has
been urged at length by Mr. Barclay in Jamaica, and supported by
some statistical accounts, which have been laid by him on the table
of the Jamaica House of Assembly.

The Registrar of Demerara rested his proof on the following com-
parative statement of the numbers of Africans and Creoles, by which
he makes it to appear that the former had been decreasing and the
latter increasing : —

There were by the registry of ■

31st May, 1817 Africans 42,224 Creoles 34,939

31st May, 1820 39,129 38,247

31st May, 1823 34,772 • 40,205

31st May, 1826 30,490 40,892

31st May, 1829 26,691 42,677

Now this argument seems to be addressed to those who do not
know the meaning of the terms employed. Those are called Africans
who were imported from Africa before the year 1808. Creoles are
those born in the West Indies. It follows that all new-born child-
ren, whether they are the progeny of Africans or of Creoles, are
called Creoles. Thus half of those that die are Africans ; but all
those that are born are Creoles.

Of course, the Africans must decrease ; for they must lose some by
death, and cannot be, in any degree, replenished by births. It is
equally certain that the Creoles must increase, since the loss by death
is supplied not only by their own offspring, but by that of the Afri-
cans also. If we examine further the real proportions of deaths
among Africans and Creoles in Demerara, we shall find that by the
registry of 1820 there were 39,129 Africans. In the registry of 1829^
they were reduced to 26,^691 ; consequently there had died in the
interim 12,438, excepting that some few of these may have been manu-
mitted.

Of Creoles there were in 1820 .... 38,247

Add the births between 1820 and 1829, reported at . 13,685.

And slaves imported from the Bahamas, Dominica, and

Berbice, probably almost all Creoles . . . 2,219

And there would have been in 1829 if none had died . 54,151

But as there were only . ■ . . . . 42,677

There must have died between 1820 and 1829 . . 11,474

This however may include a few manumissions.

Thus we see that the Africans have lost by death scarcely more in
proportion than the Creoles.

The proportion of births from the two classes cannot be known
from these accounts, as they are not distinguished.

Mr. Barclay has sought to supply this deficiency; he has laid on
the table of the Jamaica House of Assembly a return of the births and
deaths of slaves on certain properties in St. Thomas in the East, dis-
tinguishing the progeny of Africans from that of Creoles (see Chris-
tian Record for February, 1832, p. 49). This account extends over

Observations on the progress of the Slave Population. 261

the period of from 1817 to 1829. It appears by it that there were
on the estates in question, at the commencement of the above period,
954 Africans and 2,349 Creoles ; that the births from African mothers
were 138, or 10 in every 69 Africans, and the deaths of Africans 395,
or 10 in every 24 — while the births from Creole mothers were 932, or
10 in every 25 Creoles, and the deaths of Creoles 825, or 10 in 28f ,

Mr. Barclay has been charged with not having selected the estates
fairly ; but, be that as it may, it is evident that such an account proves
nothing, inasmuch as neither sexes nor ages are distinguished. For
instance, it is said that only 138 children were born of African mothers
in these 12 years; but, as the number of African women is not given,
we have no means of ascertaining whether, as a class, they are or are
not fruitful. We know generally that, in slaves imported from Africa,
the males greatly predominated ; but whether in these particular
estates the females form one-third, or one-fourth, or one-fifth of the
whole of the Africans, we have no means of ascertaining. Again, by
this account, the deaths among the Africans proportionably exceed
those among the Creoles ; but, as the ages are not given, we cannot
tell whether this excess is more than can be fully accounted for by
the more advanced ages of the Africans. We have much reason to
suspect this, as we find by another table, drav/n up at the same time
by Mr. Barclay, that, of those that died, the average age, at the time
of death, was 53 1-5 years for the Africans, and only 26,-8 years for the
Creoles. On the whole there is no evidence that the remaining
Africans will account for the loss of life, or that the population will
be under more favourable circumstances when the whole of it is Creole.

2ndly, — It is alleged that the mortality is occasioned by the large
population of old slaves. This assertion has chiefly been applied to
Demerara, and the fact has been attributed to the large importations
which have taken place at different times. It has been supposed that
the consequence would be that an undue proportion would be of ad-
vanced age, and therefore unfit for procreation ; and that consequently
the births could not bear a due proportion to the numerical amount of
the population. It is imagined that this presumed disparity will be
corrected by natural causes, and that, as soon as the different ages
bear their clue proportion, the numbers will cease to diminish. Now
let this hypothesis be tried by the fact — let the period of child-bearing
in Demerara be taken at from 10 to 40, and let the whole population
be divided according to the ages. The numbers will be found to stand
thus : — *

1817.

Under 10 17,226

From 10 to 40 . . 49,122
Above 40 10,815

1820.

1823.

1826.

1829.

16,340

14,950

12,788

12,837

44,769

39,527

37,993

33,315

16,267

20,500

20,601

23,206

77,163 77,376 74,977 71,382 69,368

* These numbers are given in the summary which has been alluded to, and signed
" James Robertson, Registrar." The totals accord with the regular Parliamen-
tary returns in the intermediate years, but not in 1817 and 1829. In the former
year the number, by the paper No. 424 of 1824, is 77,867 ; in the latter ytar, by
No. 674 of 1830,-69,467.

262 Observations o?t the progress of the Slave Population.

The proportion, however, of the different ages, will be more
clearly seen if the numbers in the above table are reduced to the pro-
portion which they severally^ bear to 1000. Of every 1000 slaves
there are then : —

By the Registry of

1817.

1820.

1823.

1826.

1829.

Under 10 . . .

223

211

200

179

185

From 10 to 40 .

637

579

.527

532 •

480

Above 40 . . .

140

210

273

289

335

1000 1000 1000 1000 1000

Now, from this table, in the first place, it is evident that, if old
lives have been really in excess, the operation of natural causes, so far
from correcting the disparity, seems only to increase it. In 1817 the
lives above 40 were in the proportion of 140 in the 1000, or about ^.
In 1829, they had increased to 335, or about \ of the whole. So that,
if the loss of life depends on this cause, we must anticipate that it
will be progressively augmenting. But, in truth, there is no such dis-
parity, as may be seen by a comparison with England.

By the Chester tables, there are in England, out of every 1000
souls.

Under 10 ... 211
From 10 to 40 . . 464
Above 40 ... 325

1000

It will be seen that in four out of the five enumerations, the proportion
of old people in Demerara has been greatly below the proportion in
England, and that, in the last enumeration, it has scarcely surpassed
it; and this has been not at the expense of the marriageable ages,. but
of the children. On the other hand, it will be seen that the number
of marriageable ages, which at first greatly exceeded, has been
gradually decreasing, but that it has not yet fallen to the level of this
country. Such a proportion cannot therefore be inconsistent with an
increasing population.

But it may be said, that the age of child-bearing extends to a later
period in England than in Demerara, so that the existence of 325 indi-
viduals above the age of 40 in every 1 000 may consist with an increasing
population in the former country, but not in the latter. This is true.
In England this age both commences and terminates later. Let it be
taken at from 15 to 45, and let us enquire what proportion of the po-
pulation of England is between these ages.

By the Chester tables, this number is found to be 436 in every
1000 — but it is a number still more below the proportion of mar-
riageable individuals, which in every census has been found to exist
in Demerara.

The deficiency in Demerara, therefore, is not in the middle ages of
lifCj but in the children.

Coneluding Remarks.

263

Before we conclude this article we tiiink it may be of use to extract a com-
bined view of the Slave population in the Sugar Colonies of Great Britain as it
stood in or about the year 1829; showing also the previous rates of decrease or increase
according to the preceding tables ; together with the quantity of Sugar imported, in the
same year, from each of those colonies, into Great Britain and Ireland, and the proportion
which that quantity bears to the number of Slaves then existing in each.

— TZ i — ^"I —

CO ^ « -^ .

■£.£■5

"■B

s g

S"^""

511 fc. ■■" I, ■-(

.5 SJ

"S— 3

« >^>

0)^

^"o

■3-x»«a;

" glO

Name of the Colony.

|||^

I -3

rt >■

u°

|sll«l

.2 3 a, a

REMARKS.

l"°s

S a n

£ S J

QJ ^

Ss-sf

tn.S !»

Oj3

la

3^ SS'C B

Antigua ,

29,839

868

0.266

173,820

6.01

Barbadoes

81,902

5,996

0.610

299,190

3.65

Berbice .

21,319

1,633

0.755

86,814

4.02

In 1831, the impottations from
Berbice were 128,088 cwt.

Demerara .

69,467

12,037

1.500

835,940

12.30

or 6 cwt. per slave.

Dominica . ^

15,392

11

0.071

56,319

3.66

Grenada .

24,145

2,515

0.870

218,470

9.05

Jamaica .

322,421

18,024

0.465

1,423,437

4.41

; Montserrat

6,262

131

0.200

27,238

4.33

Nevis

9,259

192

0.180

51,848

5.60

St. Christopher.

19,310

100

0.066

127,094

6.50

In 1831 the importations hence
were 101,968 cwt., or live cwt.
and a quarter per slave. ^

St. Lucia .

13,661

1,942

1.090

86,807

6.36

St. Vincent

23,589

1,228

0.525

258,285

10.65

In 1831 the importations hence
were 221,652 cwt., or nine
cwt. & three-fifths per slave.

Tobago

12,556

2,803

l.€SO

90,623

7.22

In 1831 the importations hence
were 121,249 cwt.,or nine cwt.
and two-thirds per slave.

Tortola .

5,399

143

0.265

22,211

4.15

Trinidad .

24,006

6,168

1.977

394,448

16.50

The decrease in Trinidad is
probably less than the reali-
ty in consequence of illicit ,

West Indies

678,537

47,834

6,007

importations.

Mauritius

76,774^

The returns from the Mauri-
tius beyond the Registry of
population are not to be
depended on.

Total Slaves in

sugar Colonies

755,301

A careful inspection of the above table will serve to show the very disastrous influence
which the cultivation of sugar, as that urocess is now conducted in the colonies of Great
Britaiiijhas on the Irealthandlifeof the slave. Withoutpretending to measure, by any nice'scale,
the proportion between the waste of human life and the quantity of sugar exacted from the
slave, it is nevertheless impossible to disregard the general results which this table exhibits. __
Can we compare, for example, the enormous sugar growth, per slave, of Demerara and
Trinidad, accompanied as it is by the rapid consumption of Negro life, with the case
of the Bahamas, where no sugar is grown, but where the slaves increase rapidly; or of
Barbadoes and Dominica, where little sugar is grown and the slaves begin to increase ;
and not be compelled to admit the murderous tendency of the present system of sugar
planting ? We admit that this tendency may be and is modified by the peculiar circum-
stances of different colonies ; but still that such is the tendency cannot be questioned. On
this point, however, we will not now enlarge, as our room will barely suffice for a remark
or two which we have made before, but which we wish again to introduce to the notice of
the public in connexion with the .subject before us.

264 Concludiny Remarks.

The slave trade ceased in the United States of America, and in the British
West Indies, in the very same year, namely, 1808. The relative proportion of
imported Africans, on which the West Indians lay so much stress as accounting
for the decrease of their slaves notvrithstanding the boasted lenity of their treat-
ment, must therefore have been nearly the same in the two cases. But have the
results been the same ?

In one of our latenumbers (No. 97, p. 102) we have shown that, in 1808, the
slave population of the United States must have amounted to about 1,130,000,
and that of the British West Indies to about 800,000.

In 1830, after an interval of 22 years, the slaves of the United States amount-
ed, by actual census, to 2,010,436; being an increase of 880,436, or about 80
per cent, in that time.

It appears, from the preceding tables, that, in or about the year 1829, the slaves
in all the British West Indies did not exceed 696,441 ;* and in 1830, therefore,
could not have exceeded 695,000, being a decrease of at least 105,000 slaves in
the same period of 22 years.

Now, had the British slaves increased, during that time, at the same rate with
the American slaves, their number, in 1830, instead of being only 695,000, would
have been 1,423,317, making the enormous decrease, as compared with the pro-
gress of population in the United States, of 728,317, a waste of life exceeding by
nearly 5 per cent, the number of the existing population.

A similar result would be produced by a comparison of the progress of popu-
lation among the slaves, with that of the free black and coloured classes, inhabit-
ing the same colonies. Had they even increased at the rate of the Maroons in
Jamaica, the least favourably circumstanced of those classes, the 695,000 slaves
of the West Indies would have grown, in 1830, to 1,240,000, or if at the rate
of the free classes in Trinidad, to 1,500,000.

These facts constitute a charge against Colonial Slavery which no sophistly
can elude. After every deduction which the most elaborate ingenuity can suggest,
it will remain under the stigma of being one of the heaviest curses which afflicts
humanity, and this independently of the unnumbered political, moral, and
spiritual evils which directly flow from it. And yet here are we, with our Go-
vernment, and one Parliament, in this land of Christian light and liberty, coolly
deliberating whether this curse, inflicted by ourselves on our fellow-subjects,
shall be at once removed, or shall be permitted for months or years longer to
oppress and desolate one of the fairest portions of the creation of God ! How
long shall we continue to endure this depressing load of conscious guilt ? Let
the Electors of the United Kingdom see to it I They are now on their trial at
the bar of the Most High !

* In the passage in No. 97, p. 202, referred to above, the number is by mis-
take stated to be 678,527, being in fact only the number in the Sugar Colonies.
But to these ought to have been added the slaves of the Bahamas, Bermuda, and
Hondui-as, together 17,904, making the whole, as in the text, 696,441.

London: Printed by Samuel Bagster, Jun., 14, BaiHholoraew Close.

THE

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 101.] OCTOBER 1, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 12.

I.— THE CHRISTIAN RECORD OF JAMAICA, No. 3, OF MARCH,

1832 ; 1. Misstatements of Mr. Alecs. Barclay ; 2. Free Labour Svgar in

Jamaica ; 3. Instruction of Slaves ; 4. Kirk of Scotland in Jamaica ;

5. Parochial Schools in Jamaica.
II.— RELIGIOUS PERSECUTIONS IN JAMAICA.
III.— CIRCULAR DESPATCHES OF VISCOUNT GODERICH TO

THE GOVERNORS OF SLAVE COLONIES.
IV.— RESOLUTIONS OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY COMMITTEE ON

THE PRESENT STATE OF THE SLAVERY QUESTION.

I. — The Christian Record of Jamaica, No. 3, ok Mauch, 1832.

The third number of the new series of the Christian Record of
Jamaica has recently arrived in this country. It bears the date of
March, 1832, and is perliaps one of the most important publications
which have been issued under that title. It is distinguished by its
fidelity and boldness. We feel that we cannot render a more essential
service to the cause of humanity and truth than by largely analysing
its contents. Let it be kept in mind that this work is published in
Jamaica, is addressed to the community of that Island, and challenges
contradiction on the spot.

I. Misstatements of Mr. Alex. Barclay.

We have often had occasion to animadvert on the remarkable dis-
regard of truth evinced by this pro-slavery writer. We have already
exposed many of his deliberate misstatements, and have dared him to
their vindication. The Christian Record, however, has means far su-
perior to ours of detecting those artfully-concocted frauds connected
with local details, which form the substratum of most of that gentle-
man's hardy assertions, and by which he has obtained so high a repu-
tation as the advocate of Colonial interests.

In a letter which he addressed two or three years ago to Sir George
Murray, then Colonial Secretary, and which was extolled by his party^
at the time of its appearance, as a triumphant vindication of the
Slave system of Jamaica, Mr. Barclay, at p. 18, describes, with much
dramatic effect, a transaction in which he himself bore a principal
and personal part.

About a month before he left Jamaica to visit England, he states
that an old Negro slave, named Joseph Marriott, belonging to Chis-
wick Estate, in St. Thomas in the East, the property of Messrs. John
and Thomas Burton, called upon him one Sunday morning, to say that
he was desirous of redeeming from slavery his wife Sophy, and her

2n

266 Misstatements of Mr. Alex. Barclay.

four children, belonging to an estate called Barking Lodge, the pro-
perty of a Mr. Ambrose Carter ; and that he hoped Mr. Barclay would
assist him in the negociation. This Mr. B. undertook to do, the slave
putting into his hand £200 in gold, and assuring him that he had
more money to produce, should more be wanted. Mr. Barclay's inter-
vention succeeded, and he obtained from the Attorney of Barking
Lodge, Mr. Forsyth, the manumission of Sophy and her four children,
who were mulattoes, of from 5 to 14 years of age, for the sum of £300
currency, or about £200 sterling. " Here," says Mr. Barclay, " was
a wealthy slave purchasing the manumission of a woman with a large
family, not even of his own caste, for they were mulattoes, who had
yet no wish to change his oivji condition." That is to say, as Mr. Bar-
clay wovdd have it understood, he redeemed, with a large sum, drawn
from his own resources, — from what he had himself earned, these five
persons, while he was indifferent as to the obtaining of his own freedom.
This, we admit, is not very intelligible, however creditable the circum-
stances might be, if it were true, to the lenity of the slave system.

But what were the real facts of the case which Mr. B. has so trium-
phantly brought forward, in the hope, doubtless, that its falsehood might
escape detection ? The facts were these : — Two sisters, Sarah and
Sophy, were slaves belonging to Barking Lodge Estate. The elder
sister, Sarah, became the concubine and housekeeper of Mr. M., the
overseer, and lived with him in that capacity during his stay on the
estate; and when he quitted it he was led, by his attachment to her,
first to hire and afterwards to buy her, retaining her still in the same
close relationship to himself. Through his liberality, and her own
prudence, Sarah amassed some property, and, having no children of
her own, she determined to employ it for the benefit of her sister
Sophy and her children.

Sophy had been less prosperous than Sarah. She became, indeed,
the concubine of Mr. G., the overseer who succeeded her sister's
paramour, Mr. M. After some time, however, Mr. G. was dismissed
from his office, and was forced to abandon Sophy, after she had borne
him two or three children. He had not either the means or the in-
clination to purchase either them or their mother, and they all re-
mained therefore as slaves on Barking Lodge. After a time, however,
Sophy became the concubine of the Attorney of the estate, by whom
she had another child; but she was at length abandoned by him also,
and left with her children in a state of slavery and without a pro-
tector. In this state she remained till Joseph Marriott, the slave men-
tioned above, proposed marriage to her : she accepted his offer, and
became his wife by Christian wedlock. The narrator expresses a hope
that she consented to the proposal of this slave under a conviction of
the sinfulness of her former course of illicit concubinage.

It was soon after this event that the elder sister, Sarah, taking pity
on Sophy and her offspring, resolved, principally from her own re-
sources, but with some aid from a third sister, and perhaps some small
contribution from Joseph Marriott, though this is uncertain, to redeem
the whole family ; and it was with the money given to him by Sarah that
he had waited on Mr. Barclay when the conversation took place which

Misstatements of Mr. Alex. Barclay. 267

that gentleman related in his letter to Sir G. Murray with so much point
and effect. Joseph may have imposed on Mr. B. by alleging that
the money was his own ; though this is hardly possible, as Mr. Bar-
clay, from his long residence in the vicinity of both the estates of
Chiswick and Barking Lodge, must have been tolerably well acquainted
with the parties and their circumstances. Mr. Barclay, therefore,
there is every reason to fear, (and the suspicion is strengthened by the
many instances of glaring untruth which are to be found in his
writings,) must have been guilty, in this case, of at least suppressing
many most material facts, in order to aid the effect of his story, and
to justify the inference he wished to draw from it. " Be that as it may,"
observes the Editor of the Christian Record, " the bargain was con-
cluded, and Sophy and hei^ children were denizened in the island of
Jamaica, while Joseph Marriott, and his own, his loved, his only
daughter" (by a former wife of course) " remained slaves on Chiswick
estate."

But the sequel of Joseph Marriott's story remains to be told, and it
shall be told in the words of the Editor of the Record : —

" With his wife and adopted family now assembled around him, the old
man" (so Mr. Barclay styles him) " pediaps looked forward to the enjoyment
of comfort in their society during the remaining years of his life ; but his
prospect of happiness was soon closed. A new overseer came to'lChiswick
estate, who, upon some cause of complaint against Joseph, sent him to the
workhouse of St. Thomas in the East ! There strict discipline, hard labour, and
hard fare, wore down his body and his spirit. He returned to Chiswick, at
the term of his confinement, an altered man ; and a few months closed the
career of this 'wealthy slave' "* (the other name by which Mr. Barclay
designates him).

" We do not mean," adds the editor, " to accuse the overseer of Chiswick of hav-
ing acted with causeless severity towards Joseph Marriott ; he had been an indulged
slave, and perhaps forgot his station ; nor would we lead our readers to under-
stand that he was treated in the St. Thomas' in the East workhouse with a
harshness beyond the discipline of a house of correction : he had been an in-
dulged slave, and was now an * old ynan,' and the consequence we have described
might have been produced without unusual severity. We wish only to show the
working of the present system of slavery ; and to lead our readers to appreciate
the words of Mr. Barclay, when he says — ' here is a wealthy slave purchasing
the manumission of a woman with a large family,' — * who had yet no wish to
change his own condition.'

" Such is this anecdote, as it has been related to us,f and we beg our readers to
compare these two accounts of the same transaction, and judge of the correct-
ness of our author's representations.

" We will not, however, insinuate by om' silence that no slave could produce
* two or three hundred pounds' of his own. We are ourselves acquainted with
some who possibly might, and we believe, as Mr. Barclay states, that there are
a few on Holland Estate, in St. Thomas in the East, who could do so — though

* A similar attempt at gross delusion recently occurred in the examination of
a distinguished planter before the committee of the House of Lords ; but we
reserve our account of it until the evidence shall have been published.

f " Should it be in any part erroneous or defective^ we offer our pages to Mr.
Barclay, and urgently request him to set us right."

268 Misstatements of Mr. Alex. Barclay.

we allow with him ' this is the best case of the kind within our knowledge.
But the consequence which he would have his readers to draw of their inde-
pendence and happiness we deny ; and shall briefly state, as illustrative of our
denial, a fact relating to slaves on this estate : —

" James Walker has been one of the most respectable and one of the most
wealthy slaves in the island of Jamaica. He has been blessed with prosperity
and length of days ; he has lived to see his children and his grand-children rise
to maturity around him ; and he has lived to see evert/ fetnale among them drop
one after another into the abyss of Colonial sin.' With a heart imbued with the
feelings of the Christian religion, he has looked around on the females of his
family, and has beheld them all the prostitutes — some the keluctant prostitutes
— of the profligate white men in authority over and around them ! What must
be the feelings of this Christian parent ? Such is the happiness of this opulent
slave and possessor of slaves ! !

" But possibly Mr. Barclay may not consider this exaltation of his family a
source of unhappiness to James Walker, lie might (if he had not omitted the
7nention of such things) have numbered it among his advantages and blessings.

"And now, if we be asked why we have related these particulars, we reply,
by anticipation, that it is solely for the purpose of opening the eyes of all, con-
cerned in carrying on the present demoralizing system, to the fallacy of the
arguments by which it is supported. We seek to exhibit, in its true colours, the
disgusting deformity of that system, not only to its abettors in the mother country,
but to the white and coloured inhabitants of this land. These have long been
surrounded by a thick veil of sin, which hides from their own vision the filthiness
and soul-withering misery around them. In charity, in love, we are determined,
with God's blessing on our efforts, to tear that veil in pieces."

Now let the whole of the facts thus disclosed be duly considered,
and a new feature of this cruel and revolting institution will present
itself to our view. We have had a variety of tales told us of the hap-
piness, not only of individual slaves, but of whole gangs of slaves.
We will suppose all these to be true. Masters and managers, we
will admit, may have been kind and indulgent, and the slaves, for a
time, may have experienced few of the evils of slavery. But a mana-
ger is dismissed, or an estate falls into the hands of a minor or a
mortgagee, and the whole of the smiling scene may be instantly
changed. Harshness may succeed to indulgence ; severity to mild-
ness ; privation to plenty ; brutal outrage to considerate kindness ;
excessive exaction to moderate labour ; a contempt of the feelings,
and a hard-hearted indifference to the best affections of the domestic
relation, to a solicitude to cherish and protect these richest springs of
worldly enjoyment ; a bitter spirit of intolerance and persecuting rage,
excited by any indication on the part ofthe slaves of religious earnestness,
to a Christian zeal to impart to them the cheering consolations and the
light and liberty ofthe Gospel; and all the horrors of unbridled lust,
rioting in the despotism of unmeasured power, to a fatherly care over
the moral purity and chastity of the young female slave. Need we
follow out the contrast ? Every reader who feels, not as a Christian only,
but as a man, will appreciate a condition of life daily liable to such
terrible vicissitudes. Nor are these evils imaginary. We could mul-
tiply instances to show their frequent occurrence in some of the vari-
ous forms of aggravated wretchedness which we have feebly attempted
to delineate. May the divine mercy interfere to put a period to them

Free labour Sugar in Jamaica. 269

for ever, for the sake not more of the immediate sufferers than of the
guilty government and parliament and people of England, vpho can
tolerate for an hour a system so replete with abominations.

And then what shall we say of Mr. Barclay ? He has incurred, by
this false and fabricated statement, not merely the guilt of a premedi-
tated departure from truth to promote some selfish object, or some
party purpose ; but the deeper guilt of deliberately aiming a blow at the
happiness of the whole Negro race. Let us estimate his claim to
credit by this single circumstance, and consign him and his works
henceforward to merited obloquy and contempt.

2. Free labour Sugar in Jamaica.

In some parts of Jamaica, as the parishes of Manchester, St. Ann's,
&c., where the cultivation is extensively directed to coffee, pasture,
&c., and which are remote from sugar plantations and from markets,
a variety of expedients are resorted to by the slaves in order to pro-
cure sugar, or some substitute for that grateful article. A hand-mill
invented by a planter, some years ago, for expressing the juice of the
sugar cane is in frequent use, in the Negro villages, for this purpose.
The juice expressed by the hand-mill was not usually made into
granulated sugar, but boiled into a thick syrup, the iron pot ordinarily
used in cooking being the utensil employed for concentrating the
liquor, and being but ill adapted for the process. Latterly, however,
an ingenious and industrious slave erected a cane-mill with vertical roll-
ers, and with spokes to operate as a lever in turning it round, and of a
capacity equal to about a one-horse power. The same slave who erected
this mill succeeded also in improving his method of boiling. By the
kindness of a neighbouring gentleman he procured small iron boilers,
which he fixed up with mason work and fitted with proper flues. He
had previously planted his cane patches, and, when his machinery was
ready and his canes ripe, he and his wife (for he was a mai-ried man)
with help hired from among his fellow slaves, began to cut and carry to
the mill his canes, on the morning of the Saturday allowed for culti-
vating their grounds, or on the Friday night preceding; and, when a suf-
ficient quantity of juice was expressed, he began the boiling of it, which
was continued all night, and, it appears, till a late hour on Sunday.
Though he was a professor of religion, it is impossible to censure very
heavily this circumstance in a country where the laws and customs,
and the necessities of the slave, compelled him, fi'om infancy and
through life, to violate the rest of the Sabbath. Scarcely any, even
Christian slaves, in Jamaica are able to avoid this desecration.

But to return. The quantity of sugar thus obtained, and which was
of a very fair quality, fully repaid the cost of the improved apparatus,
and this slave supplied the wants not only of his fellow slaves, but of
the whites on the estate (a coffee estate we presume) to which he
was attached as a slave.

Before this slave had thus turned sugar-planter he had, by his skill
and diligence, acquired some property, which he had carefully laid
by, hoping to be able ere long to purchase his freedom, and thus to
procure more time fo" his sugar speculation. He accordingly applied

270 Free labour Sugar in Jamaica.

to the attorney of the estate, when he judged he had accumulated
enough for that purpose. The attorney's reply was that the proprietor
had recently written to say that " he would manumit no more of his
slaves of any colour," His plans for the future were thus in one
moment completely blasted.

The reflections in the Christian Record on this transaction are
marked with the usual good sense of that work, and are calculated
to show the untractable nature of slavery in Jamaica. There was of
course no appeal from this harsh decision ; but would it not, it is
asked, have been much better to have taken the fairly-appraised value
of this man, and to have given him his freedom, allowing him still, as
a tenant at a fair rent, to occupy his house and garden, and a certain
portion of land ? As to quitting his house, or removing his sugar
mill, (the child of his intelligence and industry,) or abandoning his
cane patches, interspersed among his provision grounds ; such an in-
tention was probably never entertained by him. And, besides the
value of his efforts to himself, what an example to the slaves around
him would have been given by his manumission and success ! But,
alas ! this would have been regarded as sapping Jamaica plantership
at the root. That system cannot endure that a slave should have one
conception, or one desire, beyond the orders of his master or over-r
seer.

The writer thus proceeds :—

"Dujing our late troubles, I have felt some degree of interest in ascertaining
whether the people on the property to which this cultivator of ' free labour
sugar' belongs returned to their work as usual after Christmas ; and, especially,
whether the * sugar planter' himself did so. As the name of the property has
not, so far as I have observed, been numbered in the newspapers among the
rebellious, it is to be hoped that he is still pursuing the even tenor of his way.
But, should the contrary prove to have been the case, to what may we fairly
attribute such a determination ? To the preaching of seditious doctrines by Sec-
tarians ? — to religion and the Bible ? — or, to the sickening of the human heart at
the endurance of disappointed hope ?

" Far be it from me to speak, or to think, lightly of those acts of lawless vio-
lence and atrocity, on the part of the slaves, by which the peace of the country
has been recently disturbed. But just as far be it from me to speak, or think,
lightly of the acts of unrelenting tyranny and oppression which, I fearlessly
maintain, in setting the rules of humanity and equity at defiance, above all in
close barring the door of hope upon them, have been the principal goad to the
late madness of the people. Such an act have we in the instance now before us.
Here is a man who, by dint of frugality and diligence, during a number of years,
and by hard labour during every scrap of time which he could appropriate to his
advantage (besides working five and a half days per week throughout the year for
his master), and sometimes depriving himself of rest at night — here is a man, I
say, who, by such industry persevered in, collects a sum of money which he
thinks may be sufficient for the purchase of his freedom. He proposes the busi-
ness to the Attorney, and then he is told that his master has signified his inten-
tion that no other of his slaves can be allowed even to purchase their manumis-
sion ! ! How long shall this be ?"

We are sorry to be unable to record the name of this slave or of
bis master ; but we trust to hear more of both ere long.

Instruction of Slaves. 271

3. Instruction of Slaves.

The Christian Record contains a very interesting discussion on the
influence which the late rebellion may have in hindering or promoting
slave instruction. Some persons, it is said, apprehend that the door
will now be barred against it. The Christian Record anticipates a
different result. He admits, indeed, that ungodly planters are fully
convinced that slavery and Christianity are incompatible, and they
therefore assume as a necessary consequence that the teachers of
Christianity have been the main instruments of producing the late
insurrection. Hence " knots of these planters have met in diffierent
parishes, and entered into resolutions to punish, in every way in their
power, those slaves who shall dare to attend the instructions of any
dissenter," and, though less publicly declared, the same prohibition is
understood to refer also to those clergymen of the established church
who are distinguished for their activity and zeal in the same cause.

After adverting to the abortive trials of the maligned and persecuted
missionaries, and the complete exposure of the suborned perjuries by
which their lives were judicially aimed at, the writer goes on to affirm
that " a full investigation of the causes of the insurrection will show
that very few indeed, out of the immense multitude of Negroes who
struck for wages, belonged to the churches under the care of the
Missionaries, and that fewer still of them have been found engaged
among the insurgents. On the contrSiYy , vast numbers defended their
masters' property from the spoilers."

" Now," remarks this writer (and the remarks are strikingly illus-
trative of the abominations of the slave system), —

" Now will the exhibition of these facts make any impression upon the minds
of those who are knotted together to prevent the poor creatures under their care
attending upon their chosen reHgious instructors? Most likely not. They are
too far gone for that. And therefore, supposing that their ' Resolves' should be
equivalent to law, it is easy to conceive of the multiplied miseries, * the lockings
up,' ' the workings in and out,' the floggings with ' the long whip,' the polishings
with ebony, the giving of allowance only on the Sunday mornings after fiine
o'clock, and only giving to those actually pre&ent ; the examination of every
man found in his best clothes on a Sunday, and then on Monday morning, or
some time during the week, 'picking his mouth' (the Jamaica term for the art of
finding out or making some cause for punishment) it is easy, I say, to conceive
of all these multiplied miseries which will, in one way or another, be poured out
upon the men who shall dare to form for themselves on this subject opinions at
variance with those of their owners, their planting attorneys, and overseers. But
will all this arrest the progress of instruction ? I answer. No. Past experience
answers. No. It is no new case. A man may as well attempt to compress air
into nothing, as to restrain the expansion of the human mind. All that he can
do is to direct its energies and cultivate its powers to the production of good in-
stead of evil ; and happily for the slaves — happily for this country — happily for
the infatuated individuals themselves — there are others besides these resolvers
against religion and religious teaching who have a voice in the matter. It may never
cause one sleepless hour to the parties inflicting the torment, that, in addition to
the daily and nightly exactions of labour, such a series of mental and spiritual
sufferings is likely to render more brief the existence of those placed at their
mercy. Yet it cannot be supposed that the absent proprietors would wish their
slaves thus to be dealt with ; and the parties in question may be assured that
those proprietors will be well informed of all their plans and proceedings."

272 Instruction of Staves.

" I would, therefore, put it plainly and directly to the proprietors of estates
here who are resident in the mother country, whether the thus annoying, and
treatingas savage beasts, SOME of the best slaves on their properties, can at
all tend to promote the peace of the country, or advance t/ieii' pecuniary intej'ests !
Assuredly not. And it is their business to put a decided negative upon any
such practice of their attorneys or overseers. Unless they wish their properties
to be reduced to ashes by barbarous incendiaries, as has recently been done to an
alarming extent, so far from banishing religious instruction from their properties,
they will adopt more decisive measures to establish it. All that has transpired
of the causes of the late rebellion, and a great deal more that is forthcoming, has
afforded the most ivrefutable evidence "that not to instruction, but to the want
OF IT — to the absence of Christian feelings in the hearts of both governors and
governed, has been owing all the misery and ruin that has fallen upon some of
the fairest portions of the island. The error of the planters has been that, vainly
hoping to keep their slaves in brutal ignorance, and content to toil under the lash
as beasts of burthen — they have refused to permit any thing like effectual reli-
gious instruction to be given them. Keep them ignorant they could not, and,
thanks to their masters and managers, they have acquired knowledge without
Christian principle to control and direct it. This is now evident, and will every
day become more so. — Instead therefore of considering the late insurrection
injurious ultimately to the cause of effectual religious instruction, I confidently
expect that it will further it, by teaching proprietors the necessity of having
a peasantry upon their domains who shall have been taught, from the lively
Oracles of God, ' to fear God and honour the king :' it must teach them that if
they luould preserve llieir lives and fortunes, the avowed brutality of the present
system of slave-government must yield to the same authority."

The views entevtained by the planters generally on the subject of
the instruction of slaves is very graphically exhibited in the following
communication of a correspondent to the Editor of the Christian
Record : —

" I happened to be present, the other day, at a conversation which took place
at the house of an attorney in my neighbourhood, on the questioyi whether or not
a clergyman, who had been lately appointed to a district of the parish, should
he permitted to instruct the slaves on the estates in that district ! It was the
unanimous opinion of the planters present that the said clergyman ought not, on
any account, to be admitted on the estates. Why ? ' Because he was a Member
OF the Church Missionary Society !' ' There ivas nothing against the in-
dividual himself This was admitted in so many words ; but his connection with
that Society was deemed a sufficient reason for depriving the slaves of ihe means
of instruction which he was appointed to afford them, and for keeping them
bound down in the chains of spiritual darkness! What an awful responsibility
lies on the souls of proprietors who thus deliver up the spiritual welfare of their
slaves to the dictation of men abandoned to * wretchlessness of most unclean
living ! !' In this manner, and for these causes, the slaves are deprived of the
domestic instiuction and consolations of the ministers of the established church.
From the inadequate size of the chapels, and from the want of time allowed
them, they can scarcely attend his public ministry ; and they have been threatened
by proprietors, attorneys, and overseers — aye, by magistrates ! with the utmost
severity of punishment, if they shall be detected in attendance at a ' Sectarian'
place of worship. IIow then are the unfortunate creatures to obtain spiritual
nourishment for their famishing souls ? Whom will these planters permit to give
them instruction ? ' The Bishop's Catechist.' He, anf he alone, is to be ad-
mitted ; and the cause of his admission, and the value ot his instructions, may be
gathered from the conversation which passed upon this occasion : —

" An overseer who was present, addressing (he attorney of the estate which
he managed, said, ' He (the clergyman) asked me to allow him to catechise the

Parochial Schools of Jamaica. 273

slaves on the estate, Sir ; hut I referred him to you. Has he spoken to you,
Sir ?' ' You did perfectly right. He has not spoken to me yet.' ' Then he is
not to attend, Sir?' ' Certainly not. He has connected himself with the
Church Missionary Society ; and it is high time to put down fanaticism in the
country.' ' But the catechist is still attending. Sir. Is he to go on ?' ' Oh,
the Bishop's catechist. What does he teach? — does he teach reading?' ' No,
Sir : he teaches them to repeat the Church Catechism.' ' Nothing more ? '
* No, Sir.' ' Then he may be allowed to continue. That can do no harm; it
WILL DO NO GOOD ; hut it can do no harm. He may go on ! ! !'

" When," asks the writer, " will the Bishop's eyes be open to his situation ?
The lamentable fact is that he is now merely an instrument in the hands of the
planters, by vvhich they are endeavouring to put a stop to the progress of religion
in the island ! It is enough to make one's heart sick. — but it is too true that
every zealous clergyman who is anxious to discharge his duty finds himself'
checked at every point by a league between adulterous planters and tempo}'isi7jg
churchmen : tlie former consistently opposing the truth — the latter seeking ease,
and the ' friendship of the world.' When will his Lordship shake ofi' the tram-
mels of worldly policy, and stand forth in the name and in the strength of his
Master ? His voice raised against the proprietors' criminal neglect of their slaves
would be heard and listened to, and some hope might then be entertained of
rescuing the soul of the slave from spiritual thraldom ; but, if his Lordship thus
continue silent, how great is his responsibility !"

4. Kirk of Scotland in Jamaica.

All who value the Church of Scotland (and "we are among those
who value it highly, and who are interested in its credit and prosper-
ity) ought to read with attention the heavy charges brought against
its ministers officiating in Jamaica, in the number of the Record now
before us. We will not now enter into particulars, but will content
ourselves at present with thus briefly directing to that valuable work,
the attention of those in the sister kingdom who have it in their power
to apply a remedy to the opprobrious conduct to which we have with
real pain alluded. We have the utmost confidence in the influential
ministers of the church of Scotland that the hint now given will be
sufficient to incite them to enquire diligently, and to correct what
they may find amiss.

5. Parochial Schools of Jamaica.

" Is any one desirous," says the Editor of the Christian Record, " of learning
the nature and effect of our system of parochial education in this island ? Let
him look round, and he will behold bookkeeper catechists ! fornicating school-
masters ! adulterous school committees ! and almost every person connected
with the training up of the rising race stamped with the Colonial brand of un-
blushing shame. Let him look round, and he will behold vice stalking through
the land in the light of each day's sun, unabashed, because unrebuked. He
will behold the labouring class — the slaves — destitute of principle, untaught to
distinguish between virtue and vice, and wallowing in the mire of promiscuous
sexual intercourse; exhibiting certainly exceptions to this general censure, which
indicate that the day-spring from on high has dawned on the hearts of some;
but, as a whole, ignorant alike of the spiritual requirements as of the spiritual
consolations of the Gospel. He will behold the next class — the people of colour
— little distinguished from the slave in principle or in practice, regarding their
disgrace as an honour, and glorying in their shame ! And should he then look
to the highest class in the hope of finding an example, or at least a promise, of
better things, what will he behold ? He will see the great mass outraging de-

2 o

274 Religious Persecutions in Jamaica.

cency by Uieir shameless concubinage, and defying the God of heaven by the
open profanation of his day, and by a determined hostility to his religion. He
will observe the few who pretend to some degree of principle countenancing
and cheering on the rest in their course of infamy— receiving the adulterer into
their families as an honourable and honoured guest — a fit associate for tlieir
wives and daughters ! He will find them sitting in committee with the fornicator
and the blasphemer, as workers together with God in converting sinners from
their sins ! !

" What a revolting — what a mdancholy scene ! And to what extraordinary
cause can we attribute such universal, shameless depravity ? All communities
are stained with vice ; but in every Christian community vice is condemned and
decried : how is it that in ours vice is countenanced and upheld ? In every col-
lection of fallen men we shall find some abandoned to crime, and openly callous
to shame ; but these are exceptions from the general conduct, noticed with dis-
gust, and held up as warnings to others. How is it that in our society the excep-
tions— the few, shunned, despised exceptions, are the reltgjous and the
MORAL? To what are we to attribute this, the distinguishing feature of our so-
ciety ? To many causes, doubtless ; but to none from which such effects are
more clearly deducible than the shameful neglect, nay, the positive and wilful
corrupting of the youthful mind. What are our parochial schools* but semina-
ries of adultery? Read, in the lives of those who are brought up in them, our
justification of this assertion. Do not the individuals of each sex, as they ad-
vance to maturity, fall into the course of colonial sin as readily, and with as little
compunction, as would those who had been expressly brought up with that
view ? And what is the instruction given at these schools ? And of what cha-
racter are the teachers ? We will answer these questions, not by general asser-
tions, whicli may, as usual, be flatly contradicted, but by describing some of the
schools with which we are acquainted; and, for this purpose, we select those of
the 'crack' parish of the island, the highly lauded St. Thomas in the East."

After a variety of disgusting details in illustration of this position,
the Editor thus concludes his appeal : —

" We should ill fulfil our duty to our countrymen were we to refrain, through
a false notion of charity, from exposing to themselves here, and to proprietors
elsewhere, what appear to us to be the prevailing causes of the shameless depra-
vity of our society. If, in effecting this object, we use harsh language, it is be-
cause our fellow-colonists have become, from long use, so callous to shame that
nothing but a severe goad can reach their feelings,"

II. — Religious Persecutions in Jamaica.

A large mass of information has been laid before the public
on this subject, and has been circulated widely by means of the
newspapers, which have given full details of the speeches delivered
at various meetings, and particularly at a very numerous, indeed
a greatly overflowing meeting of all denominations of Christians,
held at Exeter Hall, in London, on the 15th of August last, at which
upwards of 3000 persons listened with breathless interest, not to say
horror, to the authentic testimony laid before them on the subject.
These concurred in a unanimous vote expressive of their regret and
indignation at the cruel and determined opposition of the colonists
to the religious instruction of the slaves, and the disgraceful outrages
committed by them on the persons and property of Missionaries, in

* These schools are exclusively for the children of the free.

Religious Persecutionn in Jamaica, 275

violation of the laws both of God and man ; — of their ftiUest con-
viction that the system of colonial slavery, while suffered to subsist,
was utterly at variance with the spirit and precepts of the Gospel,
and with any security for its promulgation ; — and of their solemn *and
imperative obligation to urge, upon the legislature and the govern-
ment of this country, the adoption of all suitable means for the com-
plete and immediate extinction throughout the British dominions of
that crying evil.

For copious and most interesting details in support of these con-
clusions we must refer, in addition to our own pages, to the following
recent publications : —

1. Report of the Speeches of the Rev. Peter Duncan, a Wesleyan,
and the Rev. W, Knibb, a Baptist Missionary, delivered at the above
meeting, price Id., with large allowances if taken in quantities for
distribution. Printed for Bagster, 15, Paternoster Row.

2. Narrative of Events connected with the Disturbances and
Persecutions in Jamaica, by the Rev. T. F.Abbott, Baptist Missionary.
Printed by order of the Committee of the Baptist Society for Holds-
worth, St. Paul's Church Yard. 8vo. pp. 40.

3. Facts and Statements connected with the late Slave Insurrection
in Jamaica, and the violations of civil and religious liberty arising
out of it. Prepared by the Rev. W. Knibb. 8vo. pp. 24.

We cannot attempt any regular abstract of these highly interesting
but condensed documents. We must content ourselves with sharp-
ening the appetite of our readers to peruse the works themselves, by
a few detached references.

"I now come to the case of Henry Williams.* This man had remained up
with some of his friends on the last day of the year, and engaged with them in
prayer, and in renewing, as is customary with the Methodists at that season,
their Christian covenant. For this he was tried and condemned, and was
severely flogged. When it was asked for what that punishment was inflicted, it
was answered that he was flogged for holding an illegal meeting, and for adminis-
tering unlawful oaths. This poor Negro had been most carefully watching his
master's property up to the period with respect to which he was accused, and yet
this was his reward.

" Another Negro, when under the lash, was asked whether his minister had ever
stated to him that if he had faith he should be free. His answer was, ' No,
massa ; minister never say no such thing.' You have heard of the Roman citi-
zen who, while undergoing the torture of the lash, used only the expression, ' I
am a Roman citizen.' You may admire the heroic firmness of that man, but
should not your admiration be higher of the greater firmness of this poor untu-
tored African, who during his torture refused to give false testimony, though it
might have released him from the hands of the torturer ?

" When the insurrection first broke out, I was concerned for the fate of one
Negro whom I knew well, and against whom, on account of his great attachment
to religious instruction, and his desire to communicate it to others, I knew that a
strong prejudice prevailed. That Negro was James Malcolm. It turned out,
however, that this man was acting as the pioneer to the troops under Sir Willoughby
Cotton, and pointing out the haunts of those who took a part in the insurrection.

* See for some account of the previous cruel suffering^ of this slave the Anti-
Slavery Reporter, Vol. iii. No. 65. p. 356.

276 Religious Persecutions in Jamaica.

" The return which the poor fellow got for his loyalty was an expressfon of re-
gret from his overseer that he (Malcolm) was not engaged in the insurrection, as
he should wish to get rid of him. In fact, this was the real ground of regret on
the part of those who wished to crush all whom they suspected of a wish for the
em-ancipation of the Negro. They saw with regret that the missionaries, and
those who belonged to their congregations, had taken no part in the insurrection ;
for, had it been otherwise, it v/ould have been a great point gained. It happened,
however, that this ground of objection had not been given to them."

"It is a fact that only one class-leader was charged by the Rebellion Com-
mittee : that is the man whose name I have already mentioned — James Malcolm,
who is at the present moment under sentence of death. This man has distin-
guished himself by his excellent conduct, and by his zealous efforts to convert
others. During the insurrection, he saved a considerable portion of his over-
seer's property; but he was nevertheless sacrificed by the malice of the overseer,
from whose licentiousness he had been the means of rescuing some young female
slaves, on whom he had fixed his eyes.

"Another person mentioned by my correspondent is a slave named Spence.
This man, who with some of his friends, had, after watching their master's pro-
perty, passed the remainder of the night in prayer — this man was taken by a band
of insurgent Negroes, who, on his refusal to form one of their party, placed him
on his knees, and directed two of their number to shoot him. Two muskets
were directed at him at the same moment, but fortunately they both missed fire
twice. He was then given into custody to some of the party, from whom he at
length escaped.

" Nothing can be more evident than the fact that neither the Negroes nor
the missionaries were the cause of the late insurrection, but that' it was brought
about by the conduct of the white population. That the colony will not be safe
from similar danger in future any one must be convinced who has watched the
course which the colonists are adopting. The late law by which ministers of religion
are liable to capital punishment if they interpret the Scriptures in any way that
may tend to sedition is one of a most iniquitous character. For who is to be
the judge of the tendency of the interpretation ? The makers of the law ; men
who have no sense of religion tliemselves, and very little morality, and who are
averse from any religious instruction of their slaves ! The only hope of the mis-
sionaries and of the slaves is in the justice of the British public."

Speech of Rev. Peter Duncan, p. ?• — 9.

" A man named Samuel Swiney was flogged ; — for what ? For going to
prayer. How, it may be asked, do I know this ? I ansvt'er that I was an eye-
witness to it. I stood by and saw the blood-drawing instrument of torture laid
wpon his back, and the chains put upon his neck ; and all this for the oifence of
praying for the recovery of a missionary who then lay in a dangerous state of
illness. This I avouch as an incontrovertible truth. Let my opponents stand
forward and deny it if they can. I represented these facts to his Majesty's Minis-
ters, who dismissed the justices by whom that sentence was inflicted ; and for
myself ray heart leaped for joy v/hen the Secretary of the Baptist Society sent
out the means of procuring the poor man's freedom. On a subsequent occasion
Swiney's wife was to be sold, and, although I offered as much as £'230 for her, I
could not obtain her, because, in fact, a set had been made against me.

" A woman named Catherine James, who had been forty-five years a slave,
belongs to my congregation. She had been confined for praying, and for trying
to prevent her daughter fi:om living in sin with the overseer. For this offence
she was confined during 220 days in a dungeon — (be it miderstood that each
estate has its dungeoii). After this, she was taken up as a runaway, and sen-
tenced to be worked in chains for life." Speech of Rev. W. Knibb, p. 14, 15.

" I may here give you a few specimens of the base means resorted to by the
great men of this island, in eliciting evidence from slaves and others for the pur-
pose of criminating your Missionaries. We are not authorised to use the na,mes

Religious Persecutions in Jamuica. 277

of those persons who have furnished us with the following statements, though^
if necessary, \ye can get them substantiated on oath. — A free member of Mr.
Burchell's church was charged with having received letters from Mr. Burchell.
She was taken up and examined, when the following threats were made use of
to induce her to implicate Mr. Burchell, by a magistrate. '■ Now we have good
proof that you did receive the letters ; now tell us the truth ; if you don't, there
is a boat ready to ship you off.' She replied, 'I cannot tell a Lie upon myself
or Mr. Burchell. I never did receive any letters.' Magistrate. — ' Now, my
good woman, I won't send for a constable to take you to the Court House, but
I will carry you myself, so you had better tell the triith.^ He then took her to
the Court House, and put on her handcuffs, among a hundred or more Negroes,
where she remained from two P. M. until the next day, when a lieut.-colonel
(militia) came and said, ' Have you not letters from Mr. B. V Woman. — 'No.'
Colonel. — 'Are you not ^ Baptist V Woman. — 'Yes.' Colonel. — ' You see
the galloios out there (pointing to it) ; if they were to hang up Mr. B. and your-
self, how you would holloa .'' Much more followed of the same nature, when
Mr. M. examined her, and, finding nothing against her, she was discharged.

Again, Mr. was present when one of the militia officers held his sword over

a Negro's head, and, pointing to the gallows, said, ' If you do not tell me some-
thing about the Baptist parsons, you shall be hung up there.' — Other cases oc-
curred at Lucea. A free coloured man was present when Dr. took a Negro

man prisoner, and interrogated him in this manner : Dr. — ' Did not Mr. Bur-
chell tell you to rebel T ' No, Sir.' Dr. — ' Tell me the truth, tell me that Mr.
B. did tell you to do so, or I'll blow your brains out' (at the same time pre-
senting a pistol at his head). The Negro at last, doubtless fearing that Dr. —
would put his diabolical threat into execution, said ' Ah, for true, massa, me
forget, the night before Mr. Burchell go away, him tell me somting tan so;' that
is, ' something of the kind.' This of course was sufficient to inculpate Mr.
Burchell. — A person vi^as present when the supervisor of the workhouse at Lucea
was superintending the flogging of a rebel Negro. The driver gave three lashes,
when the supervisor cried out, ' What, no blood yet ? tell me, you rascal, did not
Mr. Burchell tell you to rebel !' Negro.—' No, massa, I dont know Mr.
Burchell, I Jiever see him.' Supervisor. — ' Tell me, did not that bloody villain
Burchell tell you to do it?' These, and similar questions, were put to the poor
unfortunate creature while he was being flogged ; but he persisted to the last that
he did not know Mr. Burchell, and never saw him. This is the kind of evidence
by which we are judged, and by this we are condemned; though it frequently
happens, as in the last case, that all their vile attempts are ineffectual, and do
not even by such means procure a shadow of evidence against us." — NajTative
in a Letter of Rev. T. F. Abbott.

Attached to an able memoria], presented to Lord Belmore by the
Baptist Missionaries in April, 1832, claiming protection from his
Lordship, and challenging the strictest investigation into their con-
duct and into all their allegations, they state the amount of their pro-
perty destroyed by the militia, during the prevalence of martial law,
to be as follows : — •

Eleven chapels burnt or pulled down, taken at the
lowest estimate of the cost of their re-erection ; in-
cluding pulpits, benches, pews, lamps, &c., in these,
and in four licensed houses rented by the Missionaries £22,150
Losses in horses, furniture, clothes, books, &c., and
travelling and voyage expenses, exclusive of charges
for the trial of the Missionaries, not yet known . . £1,100

Jamaica currency equal to £16,(500 sterling. £23,250

278 Religious Persecutions in Jamaica.

TWb chapels, three houses, and other property in St. James's were
destroyed by a party of niiUtia under a Magistrate and Captain, —
Capt, George Gordon and a Mr. F. B. Gibbs, owner of Millennium
estate. The chapel at Montego Bay was pulled down at mid-day by
a large mob, among whom were the following magistrates and officers
of militia, said to be actively engaged in the outrage, viz. Lieut. -Col.
W. C. Morris, Major J. Coates, Captains G. Gordon, W. M. Kerr,
J. Cleghorn, J. Bowen, B. H.Tharpe, J.Tharpe, and J. Gordon, and
the following magistrates, not in the militia, Alexander Campbell,
C. O'Conner, and W. Heath ; moreover E. Evans, the coroner,
and W. B. Popkin, the head constable, with a whole host of lieu-
tenants and ensigns besides.* The custos (who we are sorry to say
was Richard Barrett, speaker of the Assembly, and delegate to this
country), and Dr. G. M. Lawson, who is also colonel of the St. James'
militia, and a magistrate, it is distinctly asserted by the Missionaries,
had been informed two hours before it happened that the outrage would
take place ; but no interruption was attempted by them.

In Trelawney similar outrages occurred. The St. Ann's regiment
of militia was quartered in the Baptist chapel at Falmouth. On being
about to quit it, J. W. Gayner, a magistrate, and Samuel Tucker,
the adjutant, ordered the men to break it down, and it was completely
demolished. Thomas Tennison, of the Trelawney regiment, being on
guard, was applied to to interfere. He replied that he concluded
they would not only pull it down but set fire to it too. Mr. Knibb's
lodgings were also assailed with stones ; and his horses were taken
and retained for some time by Major-General Hilton.

At Lucea, in Hanover, Lieutenant-Colonel J. E. Payne, and Major
R. Chambers, magistrates, and the Rev. B. H. Heath, the rector,
went to the residence of Mr. Abbott, the Baptist Missionary, and
Mr. Chambers with his own hand opened Mrs. Abbott's desk, and
searched her letters, and committed various outrages, using much
abusive language to a lady residing there. The Rev. Benjamin
H. Heath took away Mr. Abbott's books, and had not returned them
at the end of more than three months. Among those who aided in de-
stroying the Baptist chapel at Lucea were the rev. rector, who invited
a gentleman to " assist in destroying the damned Baptist chapel,"
Dr. Binns, and the constable, C. Younger. Mr. Alexander Camp-
bell, a magistrate, was present, but did not actively interfere. On
the evening of the same day Dr. Binns and others entered Mr. Ab-
bott's house, armed with hatchets, and destroyed or carried off furni-
ture, clothes, and several dozens of wine ; and Dr. Binns struck, with
a horsewhip, a lady who tried to prevent the pillage, and threatened
to push her down the steps.

At St. Ann's Bay the missionary and his family were violently
driven from their dwelling, and the chapel and premises destroyed ;

* The names given are (and not one of them ought to he deprived of his due
portion of infamy) W. N. Balme, Joseph Fray, W. Plummer, T. Watson, C.W.
Ogle, J. n. Morris, G. M'Farquhar Lawson, jun., IL Hunter, W. Fowle Holt,
James Coates, W. Gordon, Joseph G. Jump.

Religious Persecutiotis in Jamaica. 279

Drs. G. R. Stennett and H. Cox, Jun., magistrates, and Cupt. S.
Drake, head-constable, aiding. The other magistrates though applied
to afforded no protection, but sent for the boxes of the missionaries
to the Court-house, and took from them papers and other things.

In Vere the Baptist chapel was destroyed by fire. Hector Maclean
Wood, a magistrate, who had beforehand broken some of the windows
and taken away the key, being present.

Similar outrages were committed in other places. Nine dozens of
Madeira wine, belonging to Mr. Burchell, the missionary, were taken
possession of by Lieut. John Henry Morris, and have not been returned;
and afterwards the same gentleman, accompanied by Mr. James Gor-
don, a magistrate, locked up the wine remaining and took away the
key, which he had then kept three months in his possession.

Facts and Stateme?its, pp. 3 — 7.

To crown all, an association was formed by the planters, called
" The Colonial Church Union," which, with strong professions of
loyalty to the king, and love for the established churches of England
and Scotland, has made it its predominant object to procure the
expulsion of all the missionaries from the Island. — One of its con-
stitutional rules is as follows : —

" It is expected from every member of the Union that he will lend
his influence and support, on all occasions, to those patriots who, in
behalf of the paramount laws of society, have hazarded their personal
responsibility for our preservation from the murderous machinations of
our enemies ;" — that is to say. Every member who may have assaulted
or may have tarred and feathered missionaries ; or who may have been
guilty of arson in burning their chapels and dwellings ; or who may have
bribed or suborned perjured witnesses against them ; or who may have
cruelly punished the slaves who attend their ministrations, shall be the
special objects of our protection.

Now in this Colonial Church Union members of the Assembly,
custodes, magistrates, assistant judges, and some clergymen of the
Church of England are enrolled. One of them, a magistrate, edits a
paper called the Cornwall Courier, in which he has repeatedly lu'ged
that the Wesleyan missionaries should be tarred and feathered.
Nothing, however, displays more forcibly the spirit which animates
the planters throughout the Island than the tone taken, by the leading
newspapers, with respect both to the missionaries, and to the poor suf-
fering and slaughtered slaves.

An officer of the St. Ann's Western regiment thus addresses the
Editor of the Jamaica Courant in his paper of February 10, 1832 : —

" Our primary ardour has been unabated. We have never allowed these
deluded wretches time to rest ; night and day have we been at them, and have
made terrible slaughter among them. And now, at the end of a six weeks' cam-
paign, we are neglected — not thought of, because the Governor must have a
little fun with Tom Hill and his yacht. The few wretches who are now out are
hiding in the cane-pieces, and we occasionally get a bullet or two at them. On
Sunday morning, five were shot, who were fallen in with and attempted to escape.
I shall not consider that we are safe, although all this havoc has been made among
the rebels ; although they may have now found the inutility of opposing the strong

280 Religious Persecutions in Jamaica.

force whidi can be opposed to them; until we can fall upon some plan of getting
rid of the infernal race of Baptists, which we have so long fostered in our bosoms,
and of demolishing their bloody pandemoniums."

Other letters to the same effect are published in the same paper of
that clay : —

" I cannot allow the post to start, without saying that I have remained long enough
at Falmouth to see the Baptist and Methodist Chapels pulled down. This good
work was accomplished this day by the troops, after their return — conquerors
from the seat of war. Lots of groans, as you may imagine, from the Saints and
their followers !"

" Let Bruce (the Editor) know that the great and glorious work has com-
menced. It is now 10 o'clock, and all hands at work, demolishing the Baptist
and Wesleyan Chapels. The Methodist Chapel is down, and the men are hard
at work at the Baptists.' The roof of the latter is not yet off, but so much in-
jured as to make it as well off as on. It is standing, true, but supported by a
few posts only. The men have gone for fire-hooks to complete the work they
have undertaken. There is the devil to pay here to-day (as you may suppose)
among the Saints and their followers — weeping and wailing, and gnashing of
teeth — wringing of hands, and groans, interrupted, at times, with curses and im-
precations on the soldiers."

" I write in the hopes of this reaching you through the way-bag, as the Post
Office has long since been shut. Some true-hearted Jamaicans have truly enno-
bled themselves this night, by razing to the earth that pestilential hole, Knibb's
Preaching Shop. Verily, friend, they have not spared Box's also. He no more
will be able to beat the roll-call to prayers, nor the tattoo upon the consciences
of our poor deluded slaves. In plain English, not one stone has been left stand-
ing— nay, not even the corner one ; and I hope that this goodly example will be
followed from Negril to Morant."

Again in the Cornwall Courier of February 15, 1832, we find as
follows : —

<' Since our last we have received accounts of the destruction of every one of
those pandemoniums of insurrection and rebellion, the Baptist preaching shops,
from Savanna-la-Mar to Brown's Town in St. Ann's. They have been destroyed
partly by the militia, and partly by some of their own followers, who have had
their eyes opened by recent events, which have taught them that the Baptist
Parsons were not the Sovereigns of Jamaica. Several of the Wesleyan Chapels
have also been either totally or partially destroyed ; a fit but trifling retribution
for the loss these men have caused to the proprietors of those estates that have
been burnt by the incendiaries, who were instigated to commit the crimes, for
which so many of them have suffered, by these preachers. — We can only say, in
the words of the Reformer, John Knox — "To get rid of the rooks effectually,
you must destroy their nests." — As to the rooks — the preachers — we would re-
commend the advice of our staunch friend, James M'Queen, to be observed to-
wards them : — ' Tar and feather them wherever you meet them,' and drive them
off the island, excepting always those who may merit a greater elevation — a more
exalted distinction."

" Some there are who aver that it might have been better to await such an ap-
plication to the House of Assembly ; we beg leave to answer — that with this
conviction before us, no benefit whatever could have followed. — We say that no
redress awaits our deeply seated injuries from Law, Legislation, or Government.
Retribution has been inflicted in the most speedy manner, and it has been in-
flicted by those who had a full right to do so. Society has its rights as well as
Legislature. The prerogative of society is undeniable; it is at all times greater
than that of legislature, which is dependent on it. — Here is one of those instances
where the representatives were powerless, and the people have taken it in their
own hands. When we say thfe people, we do not mean a mob — a gang of

Religious Persecutions in Jamaica. 281

ihieves and pickpockets, such as the happy politics of England now acknowlege
as their liege Lords — ^but we mean the Magistrates, Vestrymen, and Freeholders
of the island, who have been in arms to preserve their property, and who have,
in open day, done this thing in self-defence !

"The CoLOXiAL Church Union, established in St. Ann's (Bridges, Rector)
works well, and gives an assurance that the leading men of the country are
zealously performing their duty ; and, as an advanced guard, are diligently pro-
tecting our interests — counteracting and exposing the machinations of our ene-
mies. We trust that every man in the island will enrol his name in this
Society.

"The very defence of our lives and properties will be construed by the Anti-
Colonists into a crime of the deepest dye. They will rave for the unexpected
failure of their insurrectionary plans, and a crusade will be preached up against
us, and permitted by Government. The revolutionary Parliament of England
will emulate the revolutionary Parliament of Robespierre ; and we call on every
man throughout the island to say whether he would not rather die with arms in
his hand than submit to such an unjust, unprincipled, act of tyranny."

Again in the Jamaica Courant of February 29 and March 1 : —
" On an attentive re-perusal of the Governor's opening speech to the Legisla-
ture, we are sorry to remark that his Excellency persists in his allusions to ' the
machinations which have been employed to seduce the slaves into rebellion,'
talking of their 'allegiance .' ! and the duty they owe to their masters.' The Earl
of Belmore has been long enough in Jamaica to know that the slaves owe no
allegiance, and that the contract between their owners and the Government of the
moxher country provides only for their obedience to their masters ; and we depre-
cate the idea of inculcating upon the Negro fnind the bare supposition that the
King has any control whatever over him.' "

The foul means taken to suborn evidence against the missionaries
may be judged of by the following facts : —

Samuel Stennett, a man of colour, swore that he had heard Mr.
Burchell tell the leaders of his congregation that ''freedom was theirs:
they must fight and pray for it, and they would get it." On this
deposition, that missionary was committed to gaol and put upon trial
for his life. Before, however, the day of trial came, Stennett, driven
by the agonies of an accusing conscience, made the following volun-
tary affidavit : —

" Personally appeared before me Samuel Stennett, of the parish of St. James,
county of Cornwall, and island aforesaid, being duly sworn, maketh oath and.
saith, That the affidavit made by him against the Baptist missionaries, T. Bur-
chell and F. Gardner, which led to their confinement in gaol, was false and un-
just; that he never heard from them such facts as he, the deponent, hath sworn
against them. That he was instigated to do so by Messrs. George Delisser,
George M'Farquhar Lawson, Jun., Joseph Bowen, and W. C. Morris, the for-
mer of whom assured him that he would be well looked upon by the gentlemen
of this place, that the country would give him £lO per annum, and that he,
George Delisser, would make it £50. This deponent further saith that he is
induced to make this declaration to relieve his conscience, as he knew nothing
against the said missionaries, and that he never joined the Baptist Society as a
member until after Mr. Burchell had left the country. So help me God."

Richard Brown, of Falmouth, who by his industry had purchased
his own freedom and that of his wife, stated that he was present, as
sentinel, when a slave, named Robert Hall, and also when another
slave named Bell, were led out to be shot, Mr. Russell and Mr. Jobson
being also present.

2 p

%S2 Religious Pei^secntions in Jamaica,

" Heard Mr. Russell ask him what parson told him he was going to be free.
Heard Robert Hall say he never heard parson say so. Heard Mr. Russell say,
What, no parson? Answered No. Heard Mr. Russell say,— Say Parson
Knibb, you Sir. Heard prisoner say, Master, I cannot go tell a lie, I never
hear it."

A similar conversation took place between these gentlemen and the
slave Bell.

How little the missionaries deserved such treatment may be inferred
from a letter addressed by Samuel M. Barrett, Esq., a proprietor of
about 500 slaves in St. James's, and attorney for many more, to Mr.
Knibb, congratulating him on his release from restraint : —

" I deeply regret," he says, " that the feelings of the country should have so
strongly marked yourself and the other Baptist missionaries as objects of persecu-
tion. My opinion, an opinion resulting from my own frequent and confidential in-
tercourse, not only with my own Negroes, but with the Negroes of various other
estates, is, that religion had nothing to do with the late disturbances ; but, on the
contrary, its absence was a chief cause of them. No people could have con-
ducted themselves better than all the Negroes upon Cambridge and Oxford Es-
tates, and, in like manner, the people upon Retreat Pen. Even at the period
when the prejudice ran strongest against you, and when it was scarcely politic for
a Negro to say any thing in your favour, I have, upon every occasion, when I
have enquired from any of the members of your congregation upon any of my
properties, whether you had ever taught them to expect Jreedom ; the answer has
invariably been such as to convince me the charges against you were ill-foundedo
In the absence of all proof to criminate any one in particular, or any class of
persons, professional or otherwise, I would not in charity suspect"any one, or
venture to assign any cause for so great an evil as it has pleased Providence to
afflict us with. I should have deeply deplored, for the sake of religion, had any
of its Ministers so far perverted the truths of the Gospel as to create this shed-
ding of blood. I do, therefore, most sincerely rejoice that you stand innocent
of all guilt as connected with the late disturbances^ so far as any proof has, as
yetj been adduced."

Mr. Knibb produces this further strong testimony in favour of him-
self and his brethren : —

" In the midst of our troubles and persecutions I acknowledge with gratitude
that it pleased the Lord to raise us up some friends. John Manderson, Esq.,
a man of coloiu* — one of those persons who are tauntingly described as forming
the link between the man and the brute — that humane and compassionate in-
dividual visited me on a bed of sickness, and told me that he had lost upwards
of £40,000 by the insurrection of the slaves, but so convinced was he that the
missionaries had no hand or part in it that he was ready to share with them even
to his last dollar. That individual was a member of the Assembly. It has
been said that it was intended to tar and feather him. I should like to see them
try to accomplish this : if a rough hand were to be unnecessarily put upon a man
of colour, that moment the island would be gone." — Report oj' Speeches, p. 12.

" Out of 16,000 Baptist slaves not one could be found," says Mr.
Knibb, " that would say a word against his minister. On the con-
trary many of them were most exemplary in their conduct during the
whole course of the insurrection, apprehending insurgents, protecting
their owners' property from attack and conflagration, and performing
the plantation labour as usual." Among many instances he specifies,
the following ; —

Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich. 283

*'' Charies Campbell, belonging to Weston Favel Estate, a deacon at Falmouth,
saved the property, and has received his freedom in consequence.

" Edward Barrett, belonging to Oxford, guarded, with the people, the property
for a mouth. We have eighty-six members on this property. He, Barrett, is a
deacon of the church at Falraautb.

" George Prince of Wales, a member of the church at Falmouth, had the whole
charge of the property, the keys of the store, &c. &c., put into bis hands, for a
month. We have thirty-six members on this estate.

" The members of the churcli at Carlton Estate saved the property, as the fol-
lowing note, from Mrs. Waddell, the wife of a Presbyterian missionary, will
testify : — ' I am happy to say that some of your people, in this quarter, have
adorned the gospel by their becoming conduct, particularly Reeves, Hall, and
Gordon. Mr. Cron (the attorney) says ' they have saved Carlton, and have
completely exonerated Mr, Knibbjrom having ever said any thing to excite the
rebellion.'

" On several estates in Trelawney, to the number of forty or more, the mem-
bers of my church mounted guard, andsaved the property. Only three of the
members were tried by Court Martial, and they, I verily believe, were innocent.

"Not a single estate or pen was burnt where we had a member connected with
Falmouth church, though the whole number was eighty-six.

" On almost every estate that was saved from the rebels there were Baptists,
and they were the cause of its being spared.

" Several of the members have been rewarded by the House of Assembly for
their good conduct.

" Mr. Cantlow's church was in the heart of the rebellion ; fifteen out of eighteen
of his leaders were faithful to their owners. Of the other three we have no
sufficient proof of guilt. A gentleman from America, who saw one of them
tried and hung, said to me, I hope to meet him in heaven : he died for being a
Baptist.

" Many were actively engaged in saving property. Escrow Freeze, on Leyden
Estate, has received his freedom for his good behaviour. His wife was shot, in
her own house, by the troops. He was ordered to kill a Negro, without trial,
and refused, when the white man immediately chopped the Negro to death.

" William Ricketer, one of Mr. Burchell's deacons, saved the property from
the rebels, when the troops ran away. I believe he has obtained his freedom.

" After every exertion for the purpose, I could not find that one of Mr. Burchell's
leaders or deacons was convicted of rebellion.

" Not a single estate on which Mr. Abbott had members stopped work at all."

III. — Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich to the
Governors of the Slave Colonies.

In a paper printed by order of the House of Commons of 27 July,
1832, No. 649, are contained the recent communications of His
Majesty's Secretary of State with the Governors of Slave Colonies on
the subject of Colonial Reform.

The first, dated the 12th May, 1832, is addressed to the Governors
of the West Indian Legislative Colonies, and expresses his Lordship's
regret at the rejection by the Colonial Assemblies of the Order of
Nov. 2, 1831, as Government felt it to be their imperative duty, in
any practical measures they might adopt, to combine the interests of
the masters with those of the slaves, and " to adhere inflexibly to the
determination" of conferring benefits on the former "only when satis-
fied that adequate means had been adopted for improving the condi-
tion of the latter." And this co)irse they regarded as the best cal-

284 Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich.

culated " to avert the evils which every year's experience had demon-
strated were likely to follow from the prolonged agitation of the
vehement controversy on all questions connected with slavery." He
now, however, had resolved not to press for the present the adoption,
as a law, of the Order of the 2nd Nov. And the reason for suspend-
ing that Order his Lordship states to be the appointment of a Com-
mittee of the House of Lords for enquiring into the state of society
in the Colonies, and into the laws regulating the relations of master
and slave. He retained, indeed, he says, the opinion he had already
so strongly expressed in his despatch oi the 5th Nov. 1831 (see Anti-
Slavei7 Reporter, vol. v. No. 92, p. 37), that no such enquiry was
necessary; but he had yielded to it from a hope that the recommenda-
tions of this Committee, composed of many who were large West In-
dian proprietors, might influence the local legislatures voluntarily to
reform their system. In what appeared to him to be but a choice of
evils, he thought it better, on the whole, to incur the certain incon-
venience of postponing the relief which is so urgently required both
by the planter and by the slave, and to encounter the risk which must
necessarily attend the prolonged agitation of this subject, than to pro-
ceed at once to bring before Parliament any measures of a more de-
cisive nature." The enquiry at least, he trusts, will " either make
manifest to all that the Government is under the necessity of taking
further and more effectual measures, or it may induce the Colonial Le-
gislatures to adopt the reforms to which Government have looked as
the means of satisfying both the claims of humanity and the dictates
of prudence." "Such a course," he adds, " had become the more
necessary, as the delay which had taken place in executing the reso-
lutions of 1823 had driven many who would have been originally
contented with their enforcement to press for the immediate and
unqualified abolition of slavery." " It is to be hoped, therefore," he
further adds, " that the Committee of the House of Lords maybe the
means of prevailing upon the Colonial Legislatures to take a just view
of their situation, and of the increasing difficulties with which it is
surrounded."

On the 9th of June, 1832, Lord Goderich again addressed the
Governors of the Legislative Colonies, to announce the formation also
of a Committee of the House of Commons, in consequence of the
numerous petitions for the abolition of slavery, to consider and report
what measures it iTiay be expedient to adopt " for the extinction of
slavery throughout the British Dominions, at the earliest period com-
patible with the safety of all classes in the Colony, and in conformity
with the resolutions of May 15, 1823.*"

"Some alarm has been expressed," observes his Lordship, " lest
this vote should tend to an erroneous impression on the minds of the
slaves of being declared free, and they should be led by disappoint-

* The words in italics were moved as an amendment on Mr. Buxton's motion,
hy Lord Althorp, on the suggestion of the West Indian party; but were resisted
"by Mr. Buxton and his friends. On a division, they were carried by a majority
of 73 ; 163 voting for them, and 90 against them.

Circuktr Despatches of Viscount Goderich. 285

ment to acts of insubordination." In this alarm, however, his Lord-
ship says he does not participate ; on the contrary he entertains a san-
guine hope that nothing would so much tend to allay any feelings of
discontent which may have arisen from the late discussions, and the
resistance to the measures proposed for their relief, and to lead the
slaves patiently to await the promised improvement of their condition,
" as the certainty that Parliament is now engaged in an enquiry into
the best and speediest mode of effecting that object," If indeed "the
owners of slaves should suffer themselves to give way to unfounded
and exaggerated apprehensions; if they should indulge in violent and
intemperate language, there would be too great a probability that the
slaves, forming their notions of what they have to expect from the
alarm expressed by their masters, might be led to indulge in extrava-
gant hopes." " I trust that the fatal proof which recent experience has
afforded of the reality of this danger will serve as a warning to the
Colonists, and prevent such conduct on their parts as may lead to such
misconception." " To the planters, you will explain that the vote of
the House of Commons implies no departure from the principles
sanctioned by the resolutions of 1823 ; that no violent change in the
existing form of society is contemplated ; but that, on the contrary,
the object to which the labours of the Committee will be directed will
be that which Parliament has always recognized as the end to be
aimed at, in all that has been done on this subject, namely, the sub-
stitution, as soon as it can be effected without any shock or convulsion,
of a system of free for one of forced labour. To the slaves, on the
other hand, you will give the assurance of his Majesty's most earnest
solicitude for their welfare ; but you will explain to them that any at-
tempt on their part to wrest by force, from their masters, advantages
to which they have no legal claim, can have no other effect than to
draw down upon them the severest punishment, and to postpone the
accomplishment of that which is intended for their benefit."

The Circular Despatch addressed about the same time (May 13,
1832) to the Governors of the West Indian Crown Colonies, announces
the intention of his Majesty's Government to move Parliament to
grant to the West Indian Crown Colonies, when satisfied that the
Order in Council of Nov. 2, 1831, is in full operation, a moiety of
the annual public revenue of each ; leaving it to the Governor and
Council to select, with the approbation of the Government, the par-
ticular Colonial taxes to be remitted in consequence.* This relief,
however, is to be regarded as merely provisional, and to be exchanged
hereafter for advantages of a more permanent character.

His Lordship trusts that the Order is now in operation. If not, the
Governor will of course use the powers with which he is invested to
enforce the law, and, while he secures to the slaves the full enjoyment
of the advantages conferred upon them by it, he will repress every
attempt to abuse them, and cause the master's authority to be re-
spected, and his lawful commands obeyed.

* The annual revenue of these Colonies is as follows : — St. Lucia, £12,531 ;
Trinidad, £37,761 ; and Guiana £65,332. The amount of the annual remission,
therefore, will be respectively £6,266 ; £18,88 1 ; and £32,666 ;— in all £57,71 3.

286 Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich.

His Lordship postpones any modifications of the Order in Council
at present, though he professes his disposition to consider maturely
any that may be proposed, and he feels less difficulty in this postpone-
ment as the objections appear to him to have proceeded from miscon-
ceptions of the real nature and effect of this Order. What follows
will be given nearly entire and in his own words.

" It has been urged that the restrictions on manufacturing labour will be at-
tended with the absolute ruin of the plantations ; and it appears to be taken for
granted that the law has forbidderv' slave-labour beyond the prescribed hours,
even with the consent of the slave himself. There is nothing, however, in the
Order to justify this construction, but much which seems to me directly opposed
to it; for the words of the 90th clause are that ' No slave shall be compelled or
bound ' to perform any labour beyond the prescribed hours ; and the penalty is
denounced in the 96th clause against owners who shall ' compel or require any
slave to perform any such extra labour. All, therefore, that is prohibited is com-
pulsory/ labour beyond the prescribed hours.

" But it is further assumed that the slaves will not voluntarily engage in extra
labour for hire. This assertion has been often made, and, wherever the experi-
ment has been fairly tried, so far as my information extends, has been as often
refuted. Thus the works of the engineer department were executed at Berbice,
and the lieutenant-governor's residence there was built by the voluntary labour
of hired slaves ; and the Crown Negroes in British Guiana, who have recently
been made free, have, since their liberation, employed themselves in working
for wages under the commanding officer of engineers. From the Bahamas also
several oases are reported by the governor of the exertion of the utmost industry
by persons of the same class, when stimulated by the hope of wages ; and, in
the last collection of papers on the subject of slavery, which were presented to
Parliament on the 15th March last, will be found at page 76 a report from Sur-
tees, the protector of slaves in St. Lucia, which proves from the custom-house
returns that, from the 5th January 1831 to 5th January 1832, upwards of 1092
tons of logwood were exported from the port of Castries on account of slaves,
being the produce of their voluntary labour during the days and hours secured
to them by law.

" A more plausible objection might perhaps be founded upon the danger
that in making such a contract with the owner the slave would be a free agent
in name only. That, however, is a risk against which security might be found
in the vigilance of the protectors, and in the clear apprehension of their own
rights which the slaves may be expected to acquire. The advantages of intro-
ducing such a system would, on the other hand, be of the highest moment ; it
might pave the way for a more general substitution _ of hired service for forced
labour ; and a slave who during part of the year had been accustomed to work
two or three hours daily for wages would be rapidly preparing for the transition
into the condition of a free labourer.

" These views are not founded on mere theory. I learn from most respectable
authority that, since the promulgation of the Order in Trinidad, the practice has
already commenced in that island of hiring slaves to work in crop time at extra
hours, for an increased allowance of food ; and the extension of the same prac-
tice to British Guiana and St. Lucia may not improbably remove the obstacle
which the Order is said to have raised to the completion of the manufacturing
process, with great and permanent advantage to all parties concerned.

" Great objections have been raised to the regulations of the Order respecting
provisions. At a meeting of planters and others, held at St. Lucia on the 4th
of January last, it was unanimously resolved, ' That the Order compels the
owner to furnish his labourers daily with double the quantity of provisions sup-
plied to the King's troops, and to give them clothing such as their masters are;
in many instances, themselves destitute of.' On the other hand, the letter trans-

Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich. 287

mitted by the Governor of Trinidad, written by the chairman of the committee
of that island, on the 31st December last, contains the following passage : — ' No
planter who values the health or the comfort of his Negroes would substitute
the less plentiful, less nutritive, less wholesome, and far more economical food
provided by law, for the expensive allowance which they now receive.' Thus
the very same regulation which is condemned as profiise and extravagant in St.
Lucia is not less loudly condemned as penurious in Trinidad. Nor can it be
asserted that this contradiction arises from any local distinctions, which would
render the same food dear and nutritious in the one island and cheap and ill-
adapted for nutriment in the other ; for in both the Governor has the power of
making such substitutions for the prescribed allowances as the exigencies of the
colony may require, provided that the support of the slave be not thereby dimin-
ished. To this regulation, and to the rule which enables the owner himself, with
the written authority of the protector, to make a similar substitution in respect
to clothing, I should apprehend that adequate attention has not hitherto been
given. These provisions, however, would seem to afford a sufficient answer to
the more prominent of the objections which have been usually urged against
the Order in Council ; and I am to desire that you would immediately apply
your mind to the consideration of the question what substitutions of food and
clothing can be authorised to the common advantage of the proprietor and the
slave.

" You will avail yourself of the advice of the members of the legislative body
of the colony under your government, in forming your decision upon this sub-
ject; although that decision must at last be adopted on your ovra responsibility,
and must, under the Order in Council, be promulgated as originating with your-
self alone. If any owner should wish to provide for the maintenance of his
slaves partly by an allowance of food, and partly by granting time, it would be
in his power, as I have already shown, to make any contract of that nature with
the slaves, paying them in an increased amount of food for the voluntary surren-
der of any part of their leisure hours. In short, I am persuaded that, whenever
this Order in Council shall be studied with that calm and impartial attention
which in the first heat of the moment it may not have received, it will be found
that many of the difficulties on which its opponents have most insisted had been
obviated by anticipations in the structure of the law itself."

We have judged it best not to interrupt our abstract of these
important despatches by any observations of our own. Having, how-
ever, laid the substance of them before our readers it seems incum-
bent upon us to add a few remarks. The despatches addressed to
the governors of the legislative colonies we have perused with con-
siderable pain and regret. The experience of nine long years has
taught us the fruitlessness of referring to the Colonial Assemblies the
task of reforming the condition of their slave population. From
first to last, during the whole of that period, we have continued to
protest against such a reference, as a virtual forfeiture of the pledges,
given by Government and by Parliament, to employ effectual mea-
sures for raising the condition of the slave to that of other classes of
his Majesty's subjects. And in this view of the case we thought we
had been supported by the declarations of Viscount Althorp and
Lord Howickon the 15th of April, 1831 (see our No. 94, p. 83—90),
and by the principles contained in the very able despatches of
Viscount Goderich since he has held the seals of the Colonial De-
partment (see more especially vol. iv. No. 77, p. 152 — 155; vol. v.
No. 92, p. 40—47 ; and No. 98, p. 205—208, 218, and 228). But,

288 Circular Despatches of Viscount Goderich.

if the case was even then of a nature to draw from these noble lords
opinions so adverse to the hope of a favourable result from any such
reference, what shall be said to the renewed expression of such a hope
after the experience of another year has so remarkably strengthened
every previous ground of distrust in the purposes (nay, may we not say
in the capacity ?) of the Colonial Assemblies, to legislate beneficially
for their bondsmen ? Consolatory as were the sentiments which were
expressed by those noble lords, and cordially as we rejoiced in their
enunciation, we thought it our duty to raise our voice even then
against the practical course which, hoping against hope, they had
resolved to pursue. Our No. 80 is a proof of this, in which we gave it
as our clear opinion that such a course was not likely to produce
any beneficial result, but was likely to issue " not merely in delay,
but in disappointment, and perhaps in disaster." To the execution
of the Order in Council of the 2d November, 1831, in the Crown
Colonies, we apprehended indeed no resistance nor any disturbance.
There, nothing was left to the choice and deliberation of the planters.
In the chartered Colonies the measure would have proved equally safe
and efficacious had it been enforced by the sanction of an Act of
Parliament. " The planters might and would have grumbled at the
laws which restrained their power within due bounds ; but we should
have had no resistance which the firm and temperate execution of the
Act itself would not have repressed. Submission on the part of the
planters must have followed as a matter of course ; and the gratitude
of the slave for the blessings conferred upon him would have secured
his peaceful demeanour, and he would have shrunk from the slightest
movement which would have interfered with its beneficent operation"
(No. 94, p. 95). How widely different have been the results of the
course which has actually been pursued ! The contumacious resistance
of the planters has only been aggravated by the forbearance of the
Government. The condition of the slave was becoming in the mean
time more intolerable. Increased severity of exaction; new encroach-
ments on the slaves' scanty rights ; torturing inflictions ; and cruel
persecutions are stated to have become more frequent.— At length
Negro blood was made to flow in torrents. Yet the very men are
now invited to legislate for the comfort, and freedom, and moral im-
provement of their bondsmen, who have been wantonly drenching the
land with that blood ; and who have been recently acting the part of
incendiaries as well as manslayers — razing to the ground the houses of
worship and instruction, and doing all in their power to expel or ex-
terminate those servants of God who had been •' turning the wretched
slave from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God."
And, while all this has been transacting before our eyes, — while each
day as it has passed seemed to give fresh energy to the resistance of
the Colonists, till their contumacy grew into actual rebellion, and they
bade a daring defiance to law, and to the authority of their sovereign,
openly glorying in felonies by which his peace was outraged, and the
life and property of his faithful subjects put to hazard or destroyed ; —
to thesemen, still reeking with carnage and covered with crime, or to men

Circular Despatches of Viscou7it Godenck. 289

ctiosen by them, and sympathizing with them, is to be delegated thetask
of framing,in /tisname, a code which shall in future afford adequate pro-
tection to the objects of their bitter hostility and their fierce and merci-
Jess proscriptions. Taking into view the whole of this case, it does grieve
us that such a reference should now again be made to the colonial legis-
latures. And if we look back to the preceding pages of our present
number, with all their afflicting details, and then, reverting to No. 100,
look at the results of our population abstract, the case becomes one of
a still more painful description, fully justifying the expression of our
deepest regrets.

Lord Goderich, it is true, flatters himself that great effects, in the
way of conciliating the Colonists to the adoption of his plan of
amelioration, may be expected from the Reports of the Parliamentary
Committees which have lately been engaged in enquiring into this
subject. That these Committees were wholly uncalled for, except
for purposes of delay, we have the clear judgment, supported by the
irrefragable arguments, of Lord Goderich himself. (No. 92, p. 37, &c.)
But, whatever these reports may be, they cannot, as his Lordship ad-
mits, invalidate the testimony which has already decided the Govern-
ment and the Parliament, in union with the universal feeling of the
nation at large, to decree that Slavery shall cease. But this we will
venture to predict (and we do so on principles which we hold in com-
mon with himj and which are inherent in the very nature of man),-^
these Reports will not, and cannot, have any effect in rendering the As-
sembly of Jamaica a fit medium for communicating, to the Negro po>-
pulation of that island, the blessings of light and liberty, or of moral
and spiritual improvement. It were fatuity to hope for it. Need we
go farther than the preceding pages of the very number we are now
inditing for proof of this proposition? Let any man calmly read the
tale there told; and if, after having done so, he can place confidence
in a legislature drawn from such a society, and employed to frame
laws on such a subject, he possesses a faith far exceeding that of the
wildest enthusiast even of the present day.

If, on men thus polluted with crime and daring in rebellion, it shall br
iJiought right to lavish the nation's bounty, — and if murderers and in-
cendiaries must be indemnified for the blood they have caused to
flow and the conflagrations their own hands have kindled, — at least
let not the victims of their infuriate rage be still left to their
" tender mercies ;" and let them not have this boon added to the half
million of money granted to them that they shall have their
season of cruel and uncontrolled dominion prolonged till their ven-
geance shall be satiated, and till they shall feel remorse enough for
their past inflictions of wrong to become the willing instruments of
securing the sufferers from such inflictions in future.

But we have done for the present with this part of our subject. It
is with real pain that we have been compelled thus to speak. Deeply
as we may be impressed with a sense of what has been done by those
from whom we are constrained in this instance to differ, we do not
dare to refrain from expressing our free and undisguised feelings on

5 Q

290 Circular Despatches of Viscoimt Goderich.

the subject. We cannot doubt the earnestness with which the Govern-
ment must desire to have their hands strengthened for the achieve-
ment of that work of mercy with which they are charged ; and we
trust that the difficulties, which may have hitherto interfered with
their progress in it, will speedily vanish before the united and ener-
getic demonstrations of an enfranchised people and a reformed Par-
liament ; and that the hour is now fast approaching when the de-
cree shall go forth, the irreversible and irrevocable decree, that within
the limits of the British dominions Slavery shall totally and universally
cease.

Before closing our remarks, we must advert briefly to the despatches
addressed to the Governors of the Crown Colonies, the tenor of which
is certainly of a much more satisfactory nature. We rejoice that
Lord Goderich has not been induced, by the unreasonable and ground-
less clamours of the planters, to modify the provisions of the Order
in Council of November last, so as to meet their selfish and contra-
dictory objections. The futility of these objections he has exposed
with a master's hand. If, however, instead of coming at once to the
only real and effective remedy for the multiplied evils and aggravated
guilt of our Colonial system — namely, the emancipation of the slaves —
we are doomed still to discuss only the means of alleviating their hard
lot by progressive regulations, we trust that in lending an ear, as he
promises to do, to any representations of the planters which may be
founded in justice, he will also reconsider the observations which we
-have ventured to lay before him in a former Reporter, No. 92, on the
various provisions of the Order of November, 1831, and the correct-
ness of all of which, with a single exception, we are ready most
unhesitatingly to maintain. The .single exception to which we refer
is the regulation with respect to food. We then expressed, with
some reserve indeed, our opinion of the sufficiency of the allowance
of vegetable or farinaceous food which was assigned to the slave.
Our slight doubt has however been rather strengthened by the com-
munications from the colonies to which the Despatch of Lord Gode-
rich adverts. Heavy complaints have, indeed, been made, by most of
them, of the ruinous excess of that allowance, — a decisive proof of the
extreme scantiness of supply which previously prevailed. But the
Colonists of Trinidad, who are unquestionably competent witnesses,
affirm that the prescribed allowance is inadequate, in their estimation,
to the wants of the slave, and falls below what they themselves would
deem just and necessary, and with which in their ordinary practice
they supply him. Besides this, we have the assurance also of some
Guiana residents that, with respect to the number of full-grown plan-
tains required to be given weekly by the Order, viz. fifty-six, it is less
than the Guiana Ranter, who sets a due value on the slave's health
and capacity of exertion, regularly apportions to him ; namely, two
bunches of full-grown plantains a week, each bunch containing generally
from thirty to forty ; and this notwithstanding the miserable pittance
which the former law of Demerara authorises as the legal allowance
for an adult slave. (Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 82, p. 294.)

Circular Despatches of Viscotmt Goderich. 291

We feel a strong objection, however, to the mode of paying for the
extra labour of the slave adopted by the planters of Trinidad, and
apparently sanctioned by Lord Goderich. The Trinidad allow^ance
of food, we are told, is already greater than that of the new Order.
Why then is food fixed npon as the medium of payment for the
slave's extra labour ? There can be no good reason for this. Under
the former Orders in Council the rate of wages for extra labour was
directed to be fixed in money, and so ought it to be now. The con-
tract of the master with the slave for his labour ought to specify the
money price either of his hours, or of the quantity of labour done.
The slave may then receive, at his option, an equivalent in other ar-
ticles. But any other course must lead to abuse and dissatisfaction,
and is particularly ill-adapted to the purpose of enabling the slave
to accumulate the price of his manumission.

But, with whatever doubt we may pronounce on the question oifood,
there are others on which we can feel no hesitation in expressing a
most decided opinion (in a sense very opposite to that of the West
Indians) that great modifications are called for. We chiefly al-
lude to the totally inadequate time allowed to the slave exclusive of
Sunday for the culture of his grounds ; and the totally uncalled for
and injurious restrictions imposed on the slave's enjoyment of his Sab-
bath, and the narrow limits both as to time and distance which are to
bound his attendance on the means of instruction and religiousworship.
For the arguments by which v/e supported our views on these two most
essential points, we refer, with entire confidencein theirtruth and justice,
to the first number of our present volume (No. 92, p. 20 — 26, and
p. 31 and 32). And we are fully persuaded that if, in these particulars,
the Order should not undergo revision, it will greatly disappoint, in
its efficiency, the expectations of its fraraers. With the discussion
on these two. points, is closely connected the imperfect regulation
relating to Sunday markets. Without the substitution of a whole
week-day in lieu of the Sunday, for marketing and labour, and with-
out giving the slave a clear right to employ that week-day for these
purposes, he will still be compelled to violate the sanctity of the Sab-
bath in order to save himself and family from want, and will still be
deprived of his fair opportunities of religious improvement. (See
No. 92, p. 5, and vol. iv. No. 81, p. 285, and No. 82, p. 291.)

But we would refer the reader anew to the whole of our comments
on that Order as they stand in our No. 92 ; and particularly to what
is there said on the subject of the power of arbitrary punishment
now possessed by the master, or by his delegate of the lowest grade,
without any effective control from law or magistrate, or any effective
responsibility for its harshest and most revolting exercise. What hope
of seeing the oppressive use of such a power restrained can be enter-
tained with respect to a community so lost to the guidance of principle
as openly to avow their predetermination to violate, in their capacity
of grand and petty jurors, the solemn obligation of their oaths, and
to perjure themselves in the face of the world, and before the eye
of heaven, in order to defeat the ends of justice ?

292 Resolutioyis of the Committee of the Anti-Slaveri/ Society.

IV. — Resolutions of thk Committee of the Anti-Slavery

Society.

At a meeting' of the Committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, held
on the 27th of September, 1832, the following Resolutions were
unanimously adopted : —

1. That in the judgment of this Committee the present state of the
slave question makes it a duty of paramount importance to meet the
new Parliament, on its first assembling, with the voice of the nation
praying for the immediate extinction of Slavery in the British Colo-
nies, under such arrangements as may be found necessary for the
safety of all parties.

2. That the religious persecution in the island of Jamaica, which
in contumacious defiance of British authority has been carried to an
extent unprecedented in modern times, — the insurrection of the slaves,
necessarily occasioned by the system adopted towards them, — and the
irritating conduct of their masters, lead this Committee earnestly to
deprecate one moment's unnecessary delay in the settlement of this
important question. Unless immediate measures are taken for the
entire removal of this great national crime, this Committee are of
opinion that the mutual hostility now existing, between the slave and
the slave-holder, will lead to such a termination of the system as
will involve the oppressor and the oppressed in one common ca-
lamity.

3. That the Committee, anticipating the probability of emancipation
being accomplished by violence, if the right of the slave to his free-
dom be not speedily established, call the attention of the public to
the calamitous consequences which may attend further delay — con-
sequences which all men of Christian principles would most deeply
deplore ; — the blood which must be so profusely shed, — the inevitable
destruction of property in the Colonies, — ^and the consequent injury
to the commercial interests of Great Britain.

4. The Electors must be aware of the extreme importance of Par-
liamentary support in the new Parliament ; the Committee, therefore,
most earnestly entreat their friends not to promise their suffrages to
any candidate until they have satisfactorily ascertained that such
candidate will support the total abolition of Slavery at the earliest
moment it can take place consistently with the safety of all parties.

POSTSCRIPT.

Further accounts have just arrived from Jamaica, and also from the
Mauritius, which add irresistible force to all our preceding observa-
tions.— But we have neither time nor room for details.

In Reporter, No. 100, p. 263, top line, for " extract" read "insert."

p, 254, 7th line from the bottom, for " one parliament" read
" our parliament."

London : S. Bagster, Juii., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 102.] NOVEMBER 1, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 11.

I.— CONDUCT OF EMANCIPATED AFRICANS IN ANTIGUA.
II.— AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

I. — Conduct of Emancipated African Apprentices in Antigua,
A curious document has lately been laid on the table of the
House of Commons on this subject. It is numbered 743, and bears
the date of Aug. 16, 1832.

Our readers may 1-ecollect that, about a year before that date, Lord
Howick, in the House of Commons, spoke favourably of the conduct
of 371 African apprentices who had been seized in slave ships, and
who, in 1828, had been put in possession of their liberty by an Order
of the Secretary of State, referring in confirmation to the authority
of Sir Patrick Ross, the Governor. This statement appears to have
excited no small conaternation among the Colonial Agents at home, and
many of their constituents abroad. Accordingly, the Agent of Antigua,
on the 10th of Sept. 1831, addresses a long letter to his constituents in
that island to stir them up to disprove the statements of Lord Howick
and Sir Patrick Ross ; and he tells them that, if they should judge
the subject as important as it appeared to him, they would see the
necessity of giving him full information under the authority of the
two houses of the legislature. This letter immediately roused the
zeal and activity of the two houses — the Council and the Assembly.
Meetings were convened, speeches made, resolutions passed, committees
appointed, witnesses examined, and a joint report produced, in order
to convict both his Majesty's Government and their own Governor of
misrepresentatibn. It would almost seem as if the very fate of
slavery depended on their establishing the worthlessness, idleness, and
profligacy of the 371 Negroes whom Lord Howick, on the authority
of the Governor, Sir Patrick Ross, had described as industriously
labouring for their own support since they had been thrown upon
their own resources. No man, we apprehend, can read the report of
these legislative bodies on this occasion, or the evidence adduced in
support of it, without perceiving the foregone conclusion at which all the
actors in this investigation had previously arrived. Even Sir Patrick
Ross is struck with the extreme unfairness of the whole proceeding,
not only as it respects the liberated Africans, but as it respects his
own measured and official representations to the Secretary of State
of the facts of the case, — facts which he affirms, in the teeth of this
enquiry, cannot be controverted. " The resolutions of the House of
Assembly," he says, " have been passed without a single document
before them on which to ground their unfair and unmerited imputation
against me ;" and " I have only been prevented from expressing my-
self to that body in terms of strong indignation, upon a proceeding

2 R

294 Conduct of Emancipated African Apprentices in Antigua.

so hostile and unfounded, from the desire of avoiding a collision pre-
judicial to the public tranquillity, or embarrassing to his Majesty's
Government." (p. 3.)

Such language, proceeding from an officer of the mild and cautious
temper of Sir Patrick Ross, marks with sufficient force, presumptively
at least, the tortuous aim of this transaction ; and this estimate of its
character, harsh as it undoubtedly is, seems borne out by the following
observations of Viscount Goderich in his despatches to Sir Patrick
Ross of the 3rd and 4th of January, 1832 : —

" I have received your despatch of 15th November last, in which are enclosed
certain Resolutions of the House of Assembly, with documents appended, relat-
ing to an enquiry into which the Assembly appears to have been misled by an
erroneous representation transmitted to them, by the colonial agent, of the part
taken by Lord Howick in a discussion in the House of Commons, on the 17th
August last, respecting the liberation of certain Negroes.

" If the reports of Parliamentary proceedings (which are published in the
Mirror of Parliament more fully than elsewhere) should have reached you, you
will perceive, from the account given in that publication, however inaccurate in
other respects, the real purport of that part of Lord Howick's statement which
has been, no doubt unintentionally, misrepresented by the colonial agent."

We omit the particulars of what passed in the House : they will be
found at p, 453, No. 89, vol. iv. — His Lordship proceeds :—

" The enquiry instituted by the Assembly having thus originated in a total
misconception of what took place in the House of Commons, it is not necessary
that I should take into consideration the papers which you have transmitted,
otherwise than as documents containing information accidentally elicited upon a
subject of some interest and importance.

" In this view, I cannot but wish that there had been a greater appearance of
impartiality in the manner of instituting and conducting the investigation which
was made into the conduct and character of the Negroes in question. It is stated
by Mr. Bindon, on his examination before a Committee of the Legislature, that,
whenever the captured Africans have been brought before the magistrates, they
have not been able to obtain sureties on account of the general bad character
which they bear, and they are invariably sent to the common gaol. He adds
that he verily believes that the major part of the robberies committed in town
are committed by them ; that he considers the African Hospital a nuisance to the
town, and a receptacle of idlers and thieves. You have yourself brought the
correctness of the opinions thus delivered to a test to which the Assembly did
not think proper to expose them. The returns which you called for from the
provost-marshal established the fact, that out of the 371 Africans who were
liberated in January, 1829, only fourteen had been committed to gaol up to 13th
November, 1831, being in the proportion of less than two out of 100 in each
year. It is not stated for what offences any of the fourteen were committed to
gaol ; but when I bear in mind that none of them have been removed from the
colony, and that you were authorized, by the instructions from my predecessor
for their liberation, to take measures for the removal of any who, within a period
of seven years, should be convicted of theft, or any other offence against the
peace of society, or should be found seeking subsistence as a common beggar or
vagrant, or should become chargeable upon any parochial or public rates, except
in cases of sickness or other inevitable accident, — I am led to infer that the
offences for which the Africans in question have been committed to gaol are not
of a serious complexion, and that they have not tended to bring upon the colony
any considerable burden.

"The Assembly have observed that the Africans were, whilst in apprentice-
ship, by the terms of their indentures, exempted from agricultural labour, and

Conduct of Emancipated African Apprentices in Antigua. 295

that thus they have not been habituated to such labour, and have not, since their
liberation, in any instance engaged in it. Had it been permitted to indent cap-
tured Africans to planters, for the purpose of being employed in the labour of
the plantations, there was every reason to apprehend that no distinction would
have been made between their condition and that of plantation slaves. Unless
such a distinction could have been enforced, it would have been obviously in-
consistent, on the part of his Majesty's Government, at one and the same time
to maintain that the labour allowed by law to be exacted from plantation slaves
was excessive, and their rights ill-secured, and nevertheless to devote to that
unprotected and possibly severe condition of servitude persons who were com-
mitted to the care of the Crown, for the purpose of being preserved from slavery,
and prepared for the exercise of industry in freedom. If the plan of training
them as apprentices to other crafts and occupations than those connected with
agriculture has not been generally successftil, and if the Negroes do not now
pursue those occupations with diligence, this result is greatly to be regretted, but
is not difficult to be explained. The number of the captured Africans who hap-
pened to be brought into the island of Antigua appears to have been dispropor-
tionate to the wants of the colonial society for mechanical or skilled labour; and
by reason of this disproportion a large number of the Africans appear to have
remained unapprenticed on the hands of the collector of the customs. If it be
true, as the Assembly have stated, that the captured Africans, whilst under the
care of the collector, did not receive any moral or religious instruction, this is a
circumstance which ought undoubtedly to have attracted the attention of the Go-
vernment, and to have been brought under the notice of the Secretary of State.
I fear, however, that in this respect the captured Africans only shared the fate of
a large proportion of the Negroes in the colony. It would be a subject of sincere
satisfaction to learn that the Assembly of Antigua have provided more adequate
means of imparting religious instruction to the slaves generally ; and it is par-
ticularly desired that the liberated Africans should be especially attended to by
that portion of the church establishment in Antigua which is provided for by a
Parliamentary grant.

" I observe it to be stated, in the evidence taken by the House of Assembly,
respecting the character and conduct of the liberated Africans, that the women of
that class of persons are particularly complained of. I have already reminded
you that under the instructions of my predecessor, which led to the liberation of
these people, you were authorized to remove any of them from Antigua who
should be convicted before any magistrate of theft, or of any offence against the
peace of society, or should be found seeking their living as common beggars or
vagrants, or who should have become burthensome to any parochial rates, except
in cases of sickness or other inevitable accident. I have novi'- to call your attention
to the expediency of exercising the authority with which you are thus invested in
the case of every female African who may render herself liable to be removed ;
and I have to request that you will cause every such female African to be re-
moved to Trinidad, there to be placed on one of the settlements, either of dis-
banded soldiers or of American refugees." p. 18 — 20.

The sequel of this correspondence is remarkable, and seems de-
cisive of the question mooted by the Antigua Agent and his con-
stituents. On the 25th April, 1832, Sir Patrick Ross, in reply to
Lord Goderich's instructions, "on the subject of removing to Trinidad
such of the liberated Africans as may have forfeited the privileges de-
rived from the liberty that had been awarded to them," observes —

" It is a cause of satisfaction to me to be enabled to state that the conduct of
these people continues so much at variance with the character given of them in
part of the evidence which was laid before the Houses of Legislature, by their
joint committee, in November last, that there has not come to ray knowledge a
single case which could justify me in putting in force the penalty of removing
them from a country in which they have been for so many years domiciled.

296 American Colonization Society.

" I beg to enclose some documents, from which your Lordship will observe
that the liberated Africans are progressively advancing in moral and religious
improvement.

" Many of the liberated Africans are members of the Samaritan Society,
of the church of the United Brethren, and of a Friendly Society." p. 21.

The Governor's communication is accompanied by gratifying tes-
timonies, in favour of these poor people, from the Rector of St. John's,
Antigua, Mr. Holberton, and the Moravian missionaries.

This despatch is in conclusion thus briefly but significantly acknow-
ledged by Viscount Goderich. " I am much gratified to find that
no cases of the kind have occurred, and that you are able to give so
favourable an account of the conduct of these people." p. 24.

Thus we hope will terminate every effort to pervert truth to the in-
jury of freedom, humanity, and justice.

II. — American Colonization Society.

We continue to look with some solicitude for the appearance of the
mass of evidence which was laid before both Houses of Parliament,
in the last session, on the subject of Colonial slavery, but its publica-
tion is still delayed. While expecting it, we take the opportunity of
turning our eyes, for a brief space, to the United States of America, in
order to mark the progress of the question which occupies our thoughts
in that mighty portion of the family of man. The apparent apathy
with which it was too long regarded in that country, as in this, seems
to be giving place to an intense agitation of the public mind, obviously
big with important results ; and, while the wicked and antichristian
prejudices of colour are acquiring, in one direction, a deeper and
sterner malignity; in another, a more uncompromising and determined
hostility to slavery and all its fearful adjuncts is taking root, and
spreading itself widely throughout the Christian part, especially, of the
American population. This feeling seems of late to have been strength-
ened by the fuller developement of the principles and plans of the
Colonization Society, which, though for a time almost unnoticed in
its course, has of late come forward with a startling boldness in the
avowal of its deliberate purposes, and of the cruel and unjust expe-
dients by which, it is alleged, those purposes are to be effected ; and
the real tendency of which, it is strenously maintained, is not to lessen,
but to aggravate and perpetuate, the worst evils of Negro slavery.

Various publications have recently appeared in America which
profess to expose to public reprobation the flimsy pretences which
serve to disguise, from superficial observers, the innate and essential
deformities of the system of this society, and to delude many bene-
volent individuals into yielding it their countenance and support.
These works are not generally accessible to the British reader. One
of them, however, is now before us, which undertakes effectually to
expose the iniquity of this Colonization scheme. It bears the follow-
ing title : " Thoughts on African Colonization ; or an impartial exhi-
bition of the doctrines, principles, and purposes of the American
Colonization Society, together with the resolutions, addresses, and
remonstrances of the free people of colour," by William Lloyd Garri-
son, of Boston in New England.

American Colonization Society. 297

This exposure is conducted by Mr. Garrison with great ability and
effect, and his proofs are drawn from sources which appear unexcep-
tionable, namely, the reports of the Colonization Society itself, the
pubhshed proceedings of its public meetings, and the discussions con-
tained in a periodical work called the " African Repository," which
is the avowed and acknowledged organ of the sentiments and
plans of the Society. From these documents he has drawn so largely
as to obviate the suspicion of his having misrepresented those senti-
ments and plans. The following are extracts : —

" The superstructure of the Colonization Society," he affirms and seems to
prove, " rests upon the following pillars : —

" 1st. Persecution. It declares that the whole coloured population must
be removed to Africa ; but, as the free portion are almost unanimously opposed to
a removal, it seems to be the determination of the Society to make their situa-
tions so uncomfortable and degraded here as to compel them to migrate : con-
sequently it discourages their education and improvement in this their native
home.* This is persecution.

" 2d. Falsehood. It stigmatises our coloured citizens as being natives of
Africa, and talks of sending them to their native land ; when they are no more
related to Africa than we are to Great Britain.

" 3. Cowardice. It avows, as a prominent reason why coloured citizens
ought to be removed, that their continuance among us will be dangerous to us as
a people ! This is a libel upon their character. Instead of demanding justice
for this oppressed class, the Society calls for their removal !

'' 4th. Infidelity. It boldly denies that there is power enough in the gospel
to melt down the prejudices of men, and insists that, so long as the people of
colour remain among us, loe must be their enemies ! Every honest man should
abhor the doctrine." p. 1 1 .

"I am prepared to show that those who have entered into this conspiracy
AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS are unauimous in abusing their victims; unanimous
in their mode of attack ; 'unanimous in proclaiming the absurdity that our free
blacks are natives of Africa ; unanimous in propagating the libel that they can-
not be elevated and improved in this country ; unanimous in opposing their
instruction ; unanimous in exciting the prejudices of the people against them ;
unanimous in apologising for the crime of slavery ; unanimous in conceding the
right of the planters to hold their slaves in a limited bondage ; unanimous in
their hollow pretence for colonizing, namely, to evangelize Africa ; unanimous
in their true motive for the measure — a terror lest the blacks should rise to
avenge their accumulated wrongs. It is a conspiracy to send the free people of
colour to Africa under a benevolent pretence, but really that the slaves may be
held more securely in bondage. It is a conspiracy based upon fear, oppression,
and falsehood, which draws its aliment from the prejudices of the people, which
is sustained by duplicity, which really upholds the slave system, which fascinates
while it destroys, which endangers the safety and happiness of the country, which
no precept of the Bible can justify, which is implacable in its spirit, which should
be annihilated." p. 16.

" In short, it is the most compendious and best adapted scheme to uphold
the slave sytem that human ingenuity can invent. Moreover, it is utterly and
irreconcilably opposed to the wishes and sentiments of the great body of the free
people of colour, repeatedly expressed in the most public manner, but cruelly
disregarded by it.

Again, "Our coloured population are not aliens (as the col onizationists assert);
they were bom on our soil ; they are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ;

* It is highly penal in the slave Stales to teach slaves to read.

298 American Colonization Society.

their fathers fought bravely to achieve our independence during the revolutionary
war, without immediate or subsequent compensation; they spilt their blood freely
during the last war ; they are entitled, in fact, to every inch of our southern,
and much of our western territory, having worn themselves out in its cul-
tivation, and received nothing but wounds and bruises in return. Are these the
men to stigmatize as foreigners ?

" Colonizationists generally agree in asserting that the people of colour cannot
be elevated in this country, nor be admitted to equal privileges with the whites.
Is not this a libel upon humanity and justice — a libel upon republicanism — a
libel upon the Declaration of Independence — a libel upon Christianity ? ' All
men are born equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights — among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' What is the
jneaning of that declaration? That all men possess these rights — whether they are
six feet five inches high, or three feet two and a half — whether they weigh three
hundred or one hundred pounds — whether they parade in broad-cloth or flutter in
rags — whether their skins are jet black or lily white — whether their hair is
straight or woolly, auburn or red, black or grey.

** Now, what a spectacle is presented to the world ! — the American people,
boasting of their free and equal rights — of their abhorrence of aristocratical dis-
tinctions— of their republican equality; proclaiming on every wind, 'that all
men are born equal, and endowed with certaixi inalienable rights,' and that this
land is an asylum for the persecuted of all nations ; and yet as loudly proclaim-
ing that they are determined to deprive millions of their own countrymen of every
political and social right, and to send them to a barbarous continent, because the
Creator has given them a sable complexion. Where exists a more rigorous des-
potism ? What conspiracy was ever more cruel ?

" The Colonization Society, therefore, instead of being a philanthropic and
religious institution, is anti-republican and anti-christian in its tendency."

But we turn for a moment to a well-meant and powerful effort, by a
gentleman residing in this country, to dissipate the mist which envelopes
the Colonization scheme, and to exhibit it in its length and breadth
of evil. We allude to a pamphlet by Mr. Charles Stuart, printed at
Liverpool by Egerton and Co., entitled " Prejudice vincible ; or the
practicability of conquering prejudice by better means than by slavery
and exile in relation to the Colonization Society." This pamphlet is
prefaced by a letter from Mr. James Cropper of Liverpool, in which
he fortifies, by his respectable authority, the strong, and as they ap-
pear to us, conclusive statements of Mr. Stuart.

It would be impossible for us to follow this pamphlet, any more
than the work of Mr. Garrison, into all its details. We may, how-
ever, hereafter resume the subject. In the mean time we would
merely observe that those details are fearfully portentous. Suffice it to
say, that the broad facts of the case, as stated by Mr. Stuart, and
borne out by the evidence adduced by Mr. Garrison, are these : —

Out of the whole population of the United States — about thirteen
millions — upwards of two millions ai-e held in a most degrading and
brutal state of slavery, under laws even worse than those of the slave
colonies of Great Britain. About half a million more are free persons
of colour; free, however, only partially, being subject to malignant
exclusions and persecutions, merely because they differ in complexion
from ten or eleven millions of their fellow-subjects. These two op-
pressed and persecuted classes are rapidly increasing. Their increase
terrifies the slave party. " To remove the free class," say they, " is

American Colonization Society. 299

mercy to ourselves, as they form a perpetual source of discontent and
excitement to the slave." Their first object therefore is to expatriate,
if possible, the whole of the free class, that the slaves may be more
easily kept under. The scheme, indeed, is wholly impracticable
and visionary, even if the free were willing to go into exile at the
call of the Colonization Society. But they are not willing. They
protest loudly, and almost universally, against this cruel project of
expatriation. Their almost universal feeling maybe traced in the re-
solutions the coloured classes have adopted and promulgated in all
parts of the United States. Of these the following is a fair specimen : —

" Resolved, — That ' we hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are
created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;'

" That it is the decided opinion of this meeting, that African colonization is a
scheme to drain the better informed part of the coloured people out of these
United States, so that the chain of slavery may be rivetted more tightly ; but we
are determined not to be cheated out of our rights by the colonization] sts, or any
other set of men.

"That we view the country in which we live as our only true and proper
home. We are just as much natives here as the members of the Colonization
Society. Here we were born — here bred — here our earliest and most pleasant
associations — here is all that binds man to earth, and makes life valuable.

" That we are freemen, that we are brethren, that we are countrymen and
fellow-citizens, and as fully entitled to the free exercise of the elective franchise
as any men who breathe; and that we demand an equal share of protection from
our federal government with any class of citizens in the community.

" That as citizens of these United States, and for the support of these resolu-
tions, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we do mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. — Here we
were born — here will we live, by the help of the Almighty — and here we will die,
and let our bones lie with our fathers." p. 35.

This stubborn resistance of the coloured classes to the plan of
banishment from their native country has led the Colonizationists to
contemplate still more decisive measures, with a view to compel their
expatriation. In the Virginia House of Delegates the language em-
ployed was to this eiFect : —

" ' It is idle to talk about not resorting to force,' said Mr. Broadnax, a membei*
' every body must look to the introduction of force of some kind or other — •
and it is in truth a question of expediency, of moral justice, of political good
faith — whether we shall fairly delineate our whole system on the face of the bill,
or leave the acquisition of extorted consent to other processes. The real question,
the only question of magnitude to be settled, is the great preliminary question
— Do you intend to send the free persons of colour out^of Virginia, or not ?

" ' If the free Negroes are willing to go, they will go — if not willing they must
be compelled to go. Some gentlemen think it politic not now to insert this fea-
ture in the bill, though they proclaim their readiness to resort to it when it be-
comes necessary ; they think that for a year or two a sufficient number will con-
sent to go, and then the rest can be compelled. For my part, 1 deem it better
to approach the question and settle it at once, and avow it openly.

" ' I have already expressed it as my opinion that few, very few, will volun-
tarily consent to emigrate, if no compulsory measure be adopted.

"« I will not express, in its full extent, the idea I entertain of what has been
done, or what enormities will be perpetrated to induce this class of persons
to leave the State. Who does not know tlvat when a free Negro, by crime oc

300 American Colonization Society'

otherwise, has rendered himself obnoxious to a neighbourhood, how easy it is foi
a party to visit him one night, take him from his bed and family, and apply to
him the gentle admonition of a severe flagellation, to induce him to consent to go
away? In a few nights the dose can be repeated, perhaps increased, until, in the
language of the physicians, quantum suff. has been administered to produce the
desired operation ; and the fellow then becomes pezyec^/y twY/ir?^ to move away.

" * Indeed, Sir, all of us look to force of some kind or other, direct or in-
direct, moral or physical, legal or illegal. Many who are opposed, they say, to
any compulsory feature in the bill, desire to introduce such severe regulations
into our police laws — such restrictions of their existing privileges — such inability
to hold property, obtain employment, rent residences, &c., as to make it im-
possible for them to remain amongst us. Is not this force?'

" Mr. Fisher said : — ' If we wait until the free Negroes consent to leave the
State, we shall wait until time is no more. T/iei/ never will give their consent ;
and, he believed, if the House amended the bill as proposed, and the compulsory
principle were stricken out, this class of people would be forced to leave by the
harsh treatment of the whites.'

" What a revelation, what a confession is here ! The free blacks taken from
their beds, and severely flagellated, to make them willing to emigrate ! And
legislative compulsion openly advocated to accomplish this nefarious project !
Yes, the gentlemen say truly, 'few, very few will voluntarily consent to emigrate'
— • they never will give their consent' — and therefore they must be expelled by
force ! It is true, the bill proposed by Broadnax was rejected by a small major-
ity ; but it serves to illustrate the spirit of the colonization leaders." p. 74.

This is really too bad ; it makes the very blood to curdle in one's
veins !

The only ray of consolation which we discover breaking out from
this lurid cloud is in the institution of Anti-Slavery Societies in the
United States, formed for the very purpose of denouncing and oppos-
ing such abominations, and of extinguishing slavery altogether. We
have before us the account of one recently established in New Eng-
land, the objects of which are declared to be " to endeavour, by all
means sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion, to effect the abo-
lition of slavery in the United States, to improve the character and
condition of the free people of colour, to inform and correct public
opinion in regard to their situation and rights, and obtain for them
equal civil and political privileges with the whites." In their address
they denounce the principles and plans of the Colonization Society
in the very strongest terms of reprehension. We trust that no friends
of the Anti-Slavery cause in this country will be found to lend an ear
to any of the insidious and delusive representations of the advocates
of that Society, and still less to aid them with funds.

ERRATA

No. 97, heading

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London:— S. Bagster, Jun., Tiinter, 14, Bartholomew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 103.] NOVEMBER 15, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 12.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SIR C. B. CODRINGTON AND
T. F. BUXTON, ESQ., ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY.

1. Address of Sir C. B. Codrlngton to the Electors of Gloucestershire i

Gentlemei^, — Unwilling at all times to intrude myself unnecessarily
on your attention, I feel that I should be doing my duty neither to my-
self nor to that man with intentional malignity termed my slave, if I did
not in such times as these endeavour to open the eyes of the misled
anti-slavery Buxtonites. Gentlemen, if I were merely, like Mr. Buxton,
to make assertions which I am convinced he will not venture to say he himself
believes, I should deserve no credit for such assertions. I will therefore
state that only which, from a residence on the spot, I have been an
eye-witness to ; or which, extracted from letters in my possession, I will
vouch for the truth of. I have lived among my Negroes, and seen their
comforts, and I will assert (defying all contradiction), that a more
happy and contented class of beings never existed, until cursed with
the blessings of the Anti-Slavery Society. Still, gentlemen, I will say
that no man can be more desirous of their emancipation than myself,
because no man would be more benefited by it, if it answered its de-
sired object.

Gentlemen, my family have, for a century and a half, held under the
Crown an island in the West Indies, eleven leagues N. of Antigua. The
Negroes, in 1825, having within the preceding twenty years doubled
their numbers, amounted to about 430 : their number, at present, ex-
ceeds 500. I have an agent on the island called a governor, who, with
two overseers, form the whole of the male white population upon an
island eleven leagues from the nearest land, among a Negro (or slave)
population exceeding 500.

Mr. James, in 1825, states the Negroes to be happy and contented,
although under the greatest subordination ; and, in proof, he mentions
his having frequently slept in the woods (pirates frequently landing),
by the side of his horse, surrounded by 100 to 150 of them ; and hav-
ing often swam out to wrecks, followed by these cruelly -treated slaves, in
seas where no boats could live ; — that he was in the habit of leaving his
wife and daughter on the island, when going on business to other is-
lands (in fact, he has actually gone to England on one occasion)^
although there was not on any door a lock, or on any window a fasten-
ing. In fact, he writes, "the greater part of them would lay down
their lives to serve me. Scarcely (he adds) does one of your vessels go
to Antigua without a quantity of poultry and salt fish to sell, and in
good seasons an immense quantity of potatoes. Many of them have
ten or eleven acres of land in cultivation, the produce of which, of
course, is their own property." My agent, gentlemen, in the present
year (1832) writes, that the father of one of my slaves will not allow
nis daughter to be emancipated, thinking their present state preferable
to emancipation ; he states fully and convincingly the benefits which
would accrue to me from general emancipation, but adds his conviction
that not a fourth of my Negroes would be alive at the end of two years.

Gentlemen, I could add much more ; but I have already trespassed

2 s

302 Correspondence of Sir C. B. Codriiigton

too long upon your attention. I have bought nny Negroes, and culti-
vated my land, on the pledged faith of England. Secure me from loss,
or give me compensation, and you may offer manumission to the above
Negroes to-morrow. I have the honour to be. Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,
Dodington, Jug. 9fh, 1832. C. Betiiell Codkington.

2. Letter of T. F. Buxton, Esq. to Sir C. B. Codrington.

Sir, — In entering upon an answer to the unprovoked attack upon
me contained in your address to the Electors of the County of Glou-
cester, the first cjuestion which occurs to me is, How does it happen
that there is a dispute between us ? It certainly did not originate with
me — I had never offered you any personal insult — I had never, in pri-
vate or in public, mentioned your name, or commented on your
conduct. I ought, perhaps, to take shame for my ignorance — but the
fact is, I was not conscious that there lived such a person as Sir C. B.
Codrington.

As, however, you have chosen to step out of your way for the purpose
of criminating me, I feel myself under the necessity of entering into
some examination of your statements. I shall do this in entire good
humour. I have been so much accustomed to West Indian reproaches
that they carry with them, to my mind, neither surprise nor pain.

You begin by telling the Electors of Gloucestershire that you desire
" to open the eyes of the Anti-Slavery Buxfonites.'' Why, then, did you
not point out some sentiment I had uttered — or some fact I had stated —
and then prove the fallacy of the one or the misrepresentation of the
other? Why did you resort to general accusation, and steer clear of any
particular and tangible charge ? I suspect that it was because you
found it easier to asperse the advocate than to grapple with his argu-
mei^t. You can, howcA^er, easily remove this suspicion. All the state-
ments I have made upon the subject of Slavery are within your reach —
select any one, or more, which you deny— and if I do not verify my
statements, whether it be of fact or of argument, by conclusive proof, the
victory wiU be yours : if you decline this invitation, the Electors of
Gloucestershire will not be at a loss to decide where and with whom
the error lies.

Permit me to suggest that there is somewhat of inconsistency in your
mode of reasoning. You are very angry with those who are friendly to
the freedom of the Negro ; but, when jou have exhausted your terms of
vituperation, out comes your declaration that " no man can be more
desirous of their emancipation than yourself." If the Negroes be so
rich in comforts — if they surpass the rest of mankind in contentment,
and the causes of contentment — -why do you wish to rob them of the
JOYS OF SLAVERY? Why do you labour (to use your owu strange phraseo-
logy) "to curse them with the blessings which the Anti-Slavery Society
would confer ?" Again, you and your agent agree in thinking that
great " benefits would accrue to you by general emancipation" — where
then is the necessity of the compensation for which you plead ? Com-
pensation for an injury sustained has some colour of reason ; but com-
pensation for an acknowledged benefit is a doctrine rnore likely to be
novel than acceptable to the people of England. Again, you speak of
the increase of ^'^our slaves, and you insinuate this as a proof of good
treatment. It is so — we are agreed upon the fact that mankind only
decrease under circumstances of peculiar cruelty, misery, and oppression.
But do you not now perceive that, in your anxiety to confer a compli-
ment on yourself, you have touched upon the very point which, of all
others, condemns the slave system ? You cannot be ignorant that the

and T. F. Buxton, Esq., on Slavery. ^ 303

population of the Slave Colonies has, according to official returns, de-
creased FIFTY-TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE,
IN ELEVEN years!

But no part of your address gratifies me so much as the anxiety with
which you labour to show that your Negroes can be industrious when
they work for themselves. You exult in the number of vessels carrying
from your island to Antigua the goods which your Negroes have
acquired for thetnselves by their own labour, — the poultry they have
raised, the fish they have salted, the potatoes they have cultivated ; and,
as if this were not enough, you assure us " many of them have ten
or eleven acres each in cultivation." Indeed ! then they cannot
be the indolent beings which some planters represent them — then they
can engage in agricultural labour for their own benefit. If they make
such good use of the scantling of time you allow them, may we not
fairly conclude that, when their whole time and labour shall belong
to themselves, they will work with as much industry as the rest of
mankind ?

Thus, Sir, your address, though short, is full of instructive matter.
You have hit upon the test of population, of all others the most fatal
to the romance of Negro felicity — and next you have furnished me with
one of the most striking and conclusive illustrations I have ever heard
of the readiness of the Negro to labour, when that labour conduces to
the gratification of his own wants.

Facts such as these cannot fail to open the eyes of the Anti-Slavery " Buxton-
ites," as assuredly they have confirmed the views and shall stimulate the exertions
of, Sir,

Your very obedient humble servarit,

Cromer, Aug. 28th, 1832. Thos. Fowell Buxton.

3. Letter of Sir C. B. Codrington to T. F. Buxton, Esq.

Sir, — Having read, in the Chelteiiham Chronicle of the 6th instant, a
letter you have done me the honour to address to me, I feel that I
should be wanting in courtesy if I did not notice some of its contents ;
and I will follow your example in doing so in entire good humour. I am
charged with having used the word " Buxtonites ;" with having pointed
out no sentiment you had uttered which might be proved fallacious ;
having avoided every tangible point ; inconsistency, and other heinous
ofi'ences. I am asked why, if I am really anxious for the manumission
of my Negroes, I labour to curse them with the blessings which the Anti-
Slavery Society would confer. You then proceed to discuss the propriety
of compensation, the increase of slaves depending on good or bad treat-
ment, and are quite in ecstacy to find that where slaves are allowed ten
or twelve acres, they actually cultivate them for their own benefit. If,
Sir, in noticing some of these points, the subject may, from its nature,
draw from me some strong expressions, let me assure you that I mean
nothing personal, giving you credit for good intentions, however, in my
humble judgment, misapplied.

If the word Buxtonites has given offence, I am sorry to have used it;
but I imagined I was placing you in the situation you most coveted,
viz. the leader of the Anti-Slavery Society, a society not the less
laudable from any (possibly erroneous) opinion I may hold respecting
it ; but which I do not hesitate to say (speaking of them as a body) I
consider to have proved itself a curse, as well" to the Negro as to the
planter: and which will eventually prove a curse to the nation. On
their heads, in mv opinion, lie all the rebellions, massacres, and for-
feitures of Negro life, of which we have seen so much, and are, I fear,
floomed to see more. They have destroyed the property of the planter,

304 Con'espondence of Sir C. B. Codrington

taken away the means of subsistence from the widow and the father-
less, have changed the character of the Negro from a happy and con-
tented being (happier, because in a more comfortable state than the
British labourer) to that of a rebel and a murderer. They have unfitted
him for that state of liberty to which he was fast approaching, and
\yhich^ I am still willin.g to believe, is the object of that society. I be-
lieve, Sir, your humanity to the slave has never led you to visit those
colonies. The ignorance of the Anti-Slavery (may I say) Buxtonites is
proclaimed from the resident bishop to the casual visitor; and I will
repeat, from expressions imbibed from living among my Negroes, that a
happier or more contented class of beings Jiever existed, until cursed with the
blessings of the Jtiti-Slavery Society.

But (you say) I have pointed out no sentiment you had uttered — I
have avoided every tangible point. But have you never (speaking of
the planter) used the words atrocious — barbarous — villanous ? Have
you not lately referred to an expression (some years back) of Lord
Grenville, for the express purpose of proclaiming your concurrence in the
opinion, that '" a man who rises in the morning an owner of slaves, and
does not liberate them before he retires to bed, is a villain ?" I do not
know whether these will come under the denomination of tangible
points, and would rather have avoided noticing them; for I have no wish
to be personal. I will proceed to answer the question, why, wishing the
manumission of my Negroes, and admitting the benefit I should reap
from their manumission, I still hold them in bond^-ge. You would not.
Sir, yourself urge manumission, if you did not think they had reached
that point of moral advancement and instruction which (to use the
words of the Archdeacon of Jamaica) would make manumission a boon
(a blessing to them) instead of a curse ; and this, Sir, is the point of
difference between us. I forego what I believe would eventually/ be a
benefit to myself, I defer what I believe would be a boon to the slave,
because (with the Archdeacon) I believe he is as yet unfitted for it, and
his present manumission would be to me a loss — to him a curse. And
this leads me to the question of compensation — compensation (as you
choose to put it) " for a benefit conferred :'' but here again is the fallacy.
I ask not compensation, but insurance from loss. My Negro, by the
laws of England, is as much my property as any other species of pro-
perty; if you benefit my property, I ask no compensation; if, by
hastily depriving me of it, I suffer loss, I am in honour and good faith
entitled to compensation ; and 1 have a right in the first instance to
claim insurance against loss. Let me not be told, by you, that nian cannot
he the property of man. I have heard (perhaps I am in error) that you
have yourself received the benefit of this species of property. You
have told me of the enormous decrease of slave population within the
last eleven years: your labours, I believe, commenced about that
period ; from that date I reckon the fall of my West Indian property.
You have not in your calculation distinguished how many have fallen
by rebellion, massacre, or the halter. But may I ask. Sir (without
meaning offence), were those slaves, from whose sale (the last instal-
ment of which was made just eleven years ago) you profited, sold again
into slavery, to swell that decrease which you now so pathetically de-
scribe ? I vouch not for its truth ; I should myself have received such
profit. But the decrease is said to have arisen from the severity of the '
suge.r-cultivating system, from cruelty, misery, and oppression, par-
ticularly during the crop season ; but no man has witnessed that crop
season, without seeing the fallacy of this statement — without learning
that every slave would wish its continuance the whole year.

Although I have overstepped the bounds of a letter, there is one re-
maining point which -must not be omitted, " My Negroes can be in-

and T. F. Buxton, Esq., on Slaver]/. 305

dustrious when they work for themselves. If they make such good
use of the scantling of time I allow them, will they not work when their
whole time and labour are their own?" Sir, I know not whether
it is your intention, when you take my slaves, to divide my property
among them ; but it is a melancholy fact that those Negroes to whom
you particularly allude, having awj/ quantity of land they will cultivate, and
occasionally loading my boats with produce for their own benefit, have,
in a period of five years and a half, ending in 1831, kept themselves out
of the provision market only 18 months. But, Sir, had you visited
those colonies, you might have seen that in severe droughts (which too
frequently occur) no labour will produce provisions. But I will con-
clude. I have many Negroes who would not accept manumission ; two
instances have lately occurred, one in Barbuda, of a father refusing the
purchase-money for his daughter's liberty ; the other, of a free Negro in
Antigua declining the manumission of a wife and daughter, now my
slaves. Sir, I am much more the Negro's friend than yourself. The
eyes of the Anti-Slavery Society may remain closed ; but the people of
England are beginning to set a proper value on this hypocritical hum-
bug, and the Negroes themselves to see the delusion of Anti-Slavery
Emancipation. My writings, Sir, 7fiay stimulate your exertions ; but I will
warn you that those exertions, if leading to too hasty manumission,
can tend only to further rebellion, massacre, and blood-shedding.
I am. Sir, your obedient servant,
Dodington, Sept. 10, 1832. C. Bethell Codrington.

4. Letter of T. F. Buxton, Esq., to Sir C. B. Codrington.

Sir, — Your letter, dated Sept. 10th, has but recently reached me.
Its contents are very gratifying to me. So far from confuting, it does
not even assail my statements ; but then it is very successful in expos-
ing the errors of your own. Thus stands the controversy : — You charged
me with misrepresentation. I replied by challenging you to the proof.
I gave you a wide field. I called your attention to all I had said or
written on the subject of slavery, and I invited you to select and expose
any error in my facts or any fallacy in my arguments. You have quoted
neither my facts nor my arguments. Am I not entitled to construe that
silence into a most emphatic concession ? I want no other vindication. You

HAVE MADE A CHARGE, AND YOU HAVE FAILED TO ESTABLISH IT.

I must apprize you that I shall never attempt to justify any harsh epi-
thets which may have fallen from me in the warmth of discussion. If I
have used the terms "atrocious," "barbarous," "villanous," as applied to
the body of the planters, I regret it. You who accuse others of " making
assertions which they do not tnemselves believe ;"-;-you who charge upon
their heads " the rebellions, massacres, and forfeitures of Negro life,"
which have recently stained the annals of Jamaica ; you who describe
your opponents as " calumniators," and their doctrine as " hypocritical
humbug" — their acts as " a curse to the planter," " a curse to the
Negro," " a curse to the nation ;" — you who — (not in the excitement of
debate, but in the retirement of your closet — not in a 10 years' contro-
versy, but in three short letters) assume such a license of invective,
must surely be no stern critic on the language of your opponent.

I close this part of the controversy with this single observation : You
have, as you confess by your silence, found it impossible to damage my
statements ; but you seem to have thought it would do just as well to
overturn one of your own ; and this you have done very effectually. In
your first letter there is this paragraph :— " Scarcely does one of my vessels go
to Antigua without a quantity of poultry and salt fish to sell, and in good

2s 2

306 Correspondence of Sir C. B. Codrington

seasons an immense quantity of potatoes." Here we have the picture of a''
thriving people, not merely living in abundance, but enriching them-
selves by the export of their superfluous commodities. In the last letter
you thus speak: — " i^ is a meUmclwly J'act that the Negroes, though
occasionally loading my boats with produce for their own benefit, have,
in a period of five years and a half, kept themselves out of the provision
market only 18 months,'" The vessels dwindle into boats; the constant export
offish and poultry into an occasional shipment of produce ; and these happiest
of men, who were farmers at home and merchants abroad, cannot keep
themselves at all during three-fourths of their time. What a falling oti'
is this i You may well call it a melancholy fact — melancholy both to
the slaves and their master. It exposes their wretchedness, and it ruins
your argument.

One topic alone remains. You taunt me with the sale of my slaves,
and with the profit which I derived from them. I have had my share of
calumny. You remind me of one of that troop of libels with which I
have been assailed. I have hitherto allowed it to remain unnoticed, ■
because it rested on the authority of anonymous or hireling writers ;
but, when a person so respectable as Sir C. B. Codrington gives it in
any sort the sanction of his name, I have no alternative but to reply
to it ; and I trust you will excuse me for taking this opportunity of
doing so. Though 1 am far from ascribing the greater part of it to you,
yet, being compelled by your letter to allude to it, I could not do so
without repelling the whole accusation. The charge first appeared in
1824, and thus it ran : —

First — That in the year 1771 I prevailed on Mrs. Barnard to place
£20,000 in a West Indian House. My reply is — This is hardly possible,
as 1 was not born till 15 years afterwards.

Secondly — ^That in 1783 1 sent a Mr. Gosling to the West Indies to
sell my Negroes. I reply again, that I was not born at the period.

Thirdly — ^That Mrs. Barnard dying in 1792, I, who had married her
niece, became her executor, and the manager of her West India pro-
perty, her heir — and that I derived from her £170,000. I deny that I
married her niece, or became her executor, or managed her property ; and some
confirmation of my statement is derived from the fact that I was but six years
old at the time — an early age for matrimony, executorship, or the management of
affairs in America. I deny that I became her heir, or inherited from her
£170,000. I did not derive a shilling from her. I was not mentioned in
her will.

Fourthly — ^That I sent out a respectable gentleman to extort the last
shilling from my West India debtors, and to sell my Negroes. / deny
that I practised extortion on my West India debtors ; fori never had a
West India debtor. / deny that I sent out a resj^ectabk gentleman, or
any gentleman at all, to sell my Negroes ; for I never had a Negro to sell.

The fifth charge is, simply, that " lam Judas Iscariot," an enemy to
slavery, though every shilling I possess was wrung from the bones and
sinews of slaves. I repeat I never was master of a slave — / tiever bought
one, or sold one, or hired one. I never owned a hogshead of sugar or an
acre of land in the West Indies.

I may as well here state what foundation there is for this widely cir-
culated report.

" Some truth there is — though brewed and dashed with lies."
There was a Mrs. Barnard. She was my grandfather's sister. She
embarked a sum of money in a West India House, the greater part of
which she lost. The remnant descended to some of my near relations.
So far is true. But it is also true that in that property I never happened
to be a partaker. I am not, and, to the best of my knowledge, never

IlkvE BEEN. THE OWNER OF A SHILLING DERIVED FROM SLAVES.

and T. F. Buxton, Esq., on Slavery. 307

Hoping that the Electors of Gloucestershh-e will forgive you for^
having extorted from me this tedious explanation,

I have the honour to be. Sir,

Your obedient Servant, -
Cromer, Sept. 2\, 1832. T.Fowell Buxton.

5. Letter of Sir C. B. Codrington to T. F. Buxton, Esq.
Sir, — So satisfied should I be to leave what you term " the contro-
versy between us" in the hands of the Electors of Gloucestershire {to
whom your language is evidently addressed) that I would pass unnoticed
your letter of the 21st ult, did I not indulge a hope that I might tempt
you by an offer which might go some way towards putting your phil-
anthropy to the Negroes, as well as my own, to the test. But let me
first request that, if you should honour me with any further notice, you
will explain why every statement coming from me must be untrue, every ex-
pression intended to mislead. " What, in my first letter, I had called
vessels, are in my second dwindled into boats ; my Negroes, instead of
making constant exports of provisions, now make only occasional ship-
ments, a falling off" which (you state) exposes their wretchedness." I
thank you. Sir, for this assertion, as it comprehends in itself the proof
of every foul libel uttered against the West India planter. But, Sir,
my vessels shall be of any denomination you choose to give them ; they
are built to convey a few oxen or sheep from Barbuda to the neighbour-
ing Islands ; they are manned (»)a//c rae) by my slaves only, who have
thus an almost daily opportunity of putting themselves on board vessels
bound to North America, France, or even that land of liberty, Eng-
land. But " my Negroes send only occasional shipments ; they can-
not keep themselves at all during three-fourths of their time." A curi-
ous argument this to prove their wretchedness ; they are so well fed,
they have so little occasion (to say nothing of inclination) to work for
themselves, that, with ten or twelve acres allowed them, the land is left
uncultivated three-fourths of the year.

To this assertion then of wretchedness, I dare you to the proof; you
have not in your brewery a man less wretched than one of those wretched
slaves, not one of whom would change situations with them. And this
leads me to the offer by which this state of wretchedness may be deter-
mined. In my last I ventured a belief that your humanity to the slaves
had never led you to visit those colonies. If I can tempt you (in the
cause of the wretched slave) to trust yourself across the Atlantic, one of
my vessels shall convey you from any neighbouring Isle to Barbuda ;
while there you shall have every accommodation free of expense ; and
I pledge myself to give you, at the end of one week, the power of
manumitting a, boat load (not exceeding 50) of those wretched slaves,
on the following conditions, viz. : — ^Their manumission shall not be
compulsory; you shall fully explain to them the difference between
their present and future state ; and, as their number have increased
beyond any means I can find of employing them, they shall quit my
property. Doubtless, Sir, you will favour the public with a full and
candid statement of the condition in which you found them, as to food,
clothing, comforts, and contentment. If you accept my offer I shall
be glad again to hear from you ; if you reject it, I must beg to decline
further controversy.

And now, Sir, a few words as to manumission generally. You do
not covet it more than I do, when it can be bestowed beneficially to the
slave himself. It cannot benefit him, without ray receiving my share of
that benefit. He is a slave by no act of the planter, but by the laws of
J^ngland ; by the same laws he is my absolute property, of which I can-
not justly be deprived without compensation. By the Colonial Laws he

308 Correspondence of Sir C. B. Codrington

cannot be entirely manumitted ; nay, shudder not, Sir ! by that humane
and salutary law I have no power oi freeing myself, even after his manu-
mission, from feeding, clothing, and supporting him, if either he turns
out a vagabond, or in his old age. If, then, you force improvident
manumission, you convert that into a curse which might eventually be a
blessing. I repeat, Sir, that no man will see with more satisfaction
than myself the total extinction of slavery, when it can be accomplished
with security to property, and benefit to the slave himself.

Sir, there is still a point of minor importance on which I may be ex-
pected to say a few words. You have borne, it seems, all sorts of
calumny with exemplary patience, "until sanctioned by so respectable a
person as Sir C. B. Codrington." I might. Sir, have been flattered by
such an expression, had it not been preceded (scarce many days) by an
observation, " that you were not even aware of the existence of such a
person." You have honoured me. Sir, with an introduction to your
grandfather's sister, but you have omitted to introduce me to your
grandfather himself. Far be it from me to doubt what comes from so
respectable a person as Mr. Fowell Buxton ; still further be it to couple
your name with a set of vagabond lecturers who, .fortunately for themselves,
have escaped from the West Indies just before the halter was round their
necks. You have, however, pronounced my name as a slave-owner to be
synonymous with villain. Now, Sir, there are obstinate people who still
assert that your grandfather had considerable property in land and
slaves in the island of Barbadoes : that some 35 or 36 years ago he
sent out the late Mr. Holden (indeed the information came from Mr.
Holden himself) to dispose of that property ; that it was so disposed of
for a large sum of money, a proportion of which was invested in property
at Weymouth, which gave the right of voting, and in virtue of which
property you possess your present influence in that borough. I vouch
not for the truth of these assertions ; but, if they are matters of fact, the
electors of Weymouth doubtless will know how to appreciate your
claims to represent them in a Reformed Parliament.

I have the honour to remain. Sir,
Your humble Servant,
York, Oct. 4, 1832. C. Bethell Codrington.

6. Letter of T. F. Buxton, Esq., to Sir C. B. Codrington.

Sir, — You express a desire that the correspondence between us
should cease. That correspondence was not begun by me ; nor am I
now in any haste to close it, being persuaded that the more the ques-
tion of slavery is discussed the more truth will prevail.

You ask me to explain " why every statement coming from you must
be untrue, every expression intended to mislead." I am sure I never
meant — I trust no expression of mine could be construed to mean, that
you have wilfully misled the public. I believe you to be incapable of
any such purpose, and 1 make the acknowledgment the more frankly,
because I disdain to follow the example of those who mingle in a public
discussion the bitterness of private slander.

All I have done is to compare one with another the statements of your
several letters. Some of them I have certainly found it difficult to re-
concile ; for instance, in your first letter you assure us that " many of
your slaves have ten or eleven acres in cultivation." In your last it is
said that, " with ten or twelve acres allowed them, the land is left
tmcultivated." Again, in your first letter the Negroes are described as
so industrious as not only to support themselves, but to make consider-
able exports. In the second " the melancholy fact" is confessed that
they are so idle that they cannot maintain themselves ; and in the third,
by 'way of mending the matter, you have given us a definition of their

and T. F. Buxton, Esq., on Slavery. 309

state which is entirely new, and as entirely at variance with both the
preceding, viz. that they have no occasion to work for themselves.

This is something distinct both from industry and idleness; it cannot
claim the merit of the one, nor can it be charged with the reproach of the
other. The slaves seem to me to have a new character in every letter.
Now they are idle — now industrious — and now neither industrious nor
idle. Their fields at your bidding are cultivated or uncultivated. The
very craft which carry their potatoes and poultry are alternately ex-
panded into vessels or contracted into boats, and you close these
transformations by the liberal offer of making them " of any denomina-
tion I please."

I feel so convinced that these statements have each in their turn been
uttered in sincerity that I have laboured hard to resolve their apparent
inconsistency. Will you allow me to suggest the best solution of the
difficulty I can arrive at ? a solution which I have found to unravel
many a discordant statement coming from the West Indies, respecting
the character and capabilities of the Negro. It is this : — that he is idle
when he works for his master — industrious when he works for himself —
diligent when supplied with a motive — inert when all motives are with-
drawn. Does this argue peculiar sloth in the Negro race ? Is it not
the case with men of every shade of complexion, and the characteristic
of every family of man ? Take the most laborious of the whites : he
toils, not because he loves labour for its own sake, but because he
covets the reward of labour. Now, slavery is labour without reward.
The exertion is required, but the motive is wanting. Here lies the in-
curable evil of the system : we deny to the Negro those motives to
which nature has given an all-powerful influence, and we supply their
place by the rigour of the whip, and by those other rugged expedients
which extort involuntary and therefore feeble efforts ; much to the
misery of the slave, and as much, I apprehend, to the injury of his
employer. This consideration brings me to the conclusion that all
ameliorating measures are comparatively but idle dreams, — they assail
not the root of the mischief. So long as the system continues to be
LABOUR AviTHOUT WAGES — SO long must it be unprofitable to the mas-
ter, and a fruitful source of wretchedness to the slave.

Of the wretchedness of the slaves in our West India Colonies, you
" dare me to the proof." I have already adverted to one proof of that
wretchedness which I persuade myself carries conviction to every
rational and unbiassed mind, viz. that in eleven years our slave

POPULATION HAS DECREASED FIFTY-TAVO THOUSAND. When yOU

have discovered a satisfactory reply to this fact, I have other proofs in
reserve almost as cogent.

I now come, Sir, to the principal point of your letter. You do me
the honour to make me a very handsome proposal, the effect of which
would be to get me out of the way during the impending discussions on
slavery. I presume not to doubt your zeal for emancipation, of which
we have heard so much ; but, perhaps, I may assist in accomplishing
the object you so earnestly " covet," as directly by staying at home.
I shall certainly labour hard to promote the liberation, not only of
your proffered boat load, but of the remaining seven hundred and fifty
thousand.

You call the slave your absolute property — here indeed is precisely
the point on which we are at issue. I venture to call your property in
him, however acquired, an usurpation. I deny that any human
bein^, or body of men, can have had power to give him to you. My
creed is, that to every individual born into the icorld belongs the absolute right to
hia oivH limbs — his own labour — his own liberty — to his wife — to his children — to

310 Correspondence of Sir C. B. Codrington

the enjoyment of entire freedom — and to the unrestricted worship of
HIS God. I know, in short, no claim you can plead to extort from him
his unrewarded labour, which an Algerine might not plead with equal
force to hold in bondage his Christian captives — absolute property

IN OUR FELLOW-MAN ! !!

I now come to a point which you truly call of minor importance.
You charged me with having sold my slaves. I distinctly denied that
I ever possessed, sold bought, or hired a slave.

You then bring as a charge against me that my ancestors were pos-
sessed of West India property. — I have already told you that some of
my near relations inherited the remnants of property derived from the
w est Indies : but that to the best of my knowledge and belief (and in
the difficulty of ascertaining exactly the source from which property is
derived, it is impossible to say more) no part of that property descended
to me. I adhere to my original statement that " I never was master
of a slave ; and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, I am not
and never have been owner of a shilling derived from slavery." But,
allow me to ask, what if I had ? Should I owe less obligation to the
Negro, if I had even remotely participated in the fruits of his oppres-
sion, or been enriched by his spoils ? Prove, if you can, that I ever
sold a man, knowing, as I must have done, that he could not by any
possibility have belonged to me, and you indeed fix deep guilt upon
me. Prove, if you can, that my ancestors were slave owners, and
that the produce of that property descended to me. I acknowledge no
criminality — for I was no party to their acts — but I admit you show me
that I have one motive more to labour in the cause of the Negro.

I will not stop to point out how grossly you have been deceived as to
my property and influence in the Borough of Weymouth. With respect
to influence in that Borough, I pretend to none — save that for many
years I have been the representative of the real independence of the
town. A struggle is approaching — in which it will be determined
whether the right of returning members arises from property or from
the independent choice of the electors.

I will only add, to this already too long letter, that I have no wish t»
avail myself of your permission to separate my name from those
" Vagabond Lecturers," who (as you say) " have escaped from the
West Indies, just before the halter was round their necks." On the
contrary, I desire no greater honour than to be justly classed with those
brave and good men, who for a righteous cause have borne the horrors
of persecution, and to whose heroism future generations in the West
Indies will owe much of their civil and religious liberty.

One word more and I have done. Appearances which are hourly
coming to light so deeply impress my mind, that 1 cannot help saying
with all the emphasis of which I am capable : — Let us lay aside our dif-
ferences, and commence instantly the necessary measures for a safe and
immediate emancipation. The fact is, our\\me for emancipating at all
is fast drawing to a close : let us avail ourselves of it while a peaceful
extinction of slavery remains within our power. We are all equally fer-
vent in the desire that it should not meet its end by violent convulsions.

With this solemn warning to you, and, through you, to every English-
man who may read this letter, 1 beg to subscribe myself.

Sir, your obedient humble Servant,
Crcmer, Oct. 24, 1832. T. Foavell Buxton.

It was not our intention to subjoin a single remark on the preceding
correspondence, but to leave it to speak for itself. A few matters,
however, have occurred to us in the perusal, which may serve to eluci^

and T, F. Buxton, Esq . ^ on Slavery . 311

date the present controversy, as well as throw light on the general
question, with which we shall occupy our vacant space.

The Island of Barbuda, to which Sir C, B. Codrington chiefly confines
his observations, is all his property. It is situated about thirty miles
distant from Antigua, and is thus described by Bryan Edwards in his
History of the West Indies, vol. iv. p, 230 : — " The interior is level,
and the soil fertile, so much so that the chief or only trade of the Co-
lonists consists in the sale, in the neighbouring islands, of cattle, swine,
horses, mules, corn, and other- provisions." There appears, there-
fore, to be no sugar cultivated in Barbuda; — consequently neither
the toil of digging cane-holes, nor the night-work of crop, nor the
stimulus given by bounties to the exaction of excessive labour, affects
the slaves of that island. Accordingly, we find that there the slaves,
being employed chiefly in the rearing of cattle and of food for man
and beast, increase rapidly, as in the Bahamas, where the employment
of the slaves is similar. Of this increase (we assume the fact on his
showing) SirC. B. Codrington avails himself somewhat unfairly in order
to prove the general lenity of the slave system. His slaves increase in
Barbuda; therefore he would have it inferred that slavery is not a curse
but a blessing. But if, as he affirms, their physical wants are amply
supplied, and their labour is not excessive, they will of course, like all
animals so circumstanced, increase in number.

But why has Sir C. B. Codrington confined his viev/ to Barbuda? He
possesses in the neighbouring island of Antigua about 1 100 slaves who
are differently circumstanced. These are employed chiefly in sugar
culture, and enjoy all the delights of the night-labour of the crop-
season, which he most incredibly represents them as wishing to be
continued the whole year round. Now have they increased there as in
Barbuda ? Can he not furnish a similar test, in the case of these
Antigua slaves, of the lenient effects of sugar cultivation ? In Barbuda
the slave population, according to him, doubled its numbers in the
twenty years from 1805 to 1825. Let him favour the public with a
statement, duly certified, of the progress of population, during the very
same years, on his Antigua estates. He must have ready access to the
rneans of doing so ; — to the returns, that is to say, of the deaths and
births, and adaitions by purchase, or deductions by manumission, in
each year of the twenty. This would be meeting the question fairly.
He must be aware that, as the case now stands, his statement only con-
firms the views of the abolitionists — that, in the absence of su^ar cul-
ture, the tendency of the slave population is to increase ; although
sugar cultivation, as generally conducted in the slave colonies, is at-
tended by a great waste of human life, and is therefore a source of great
33iisery to the slaves.

Sir C. B. Codrington, in his second letter, professes to place great
reliance on the authority of the Archdeacon of Jamaica in regard
to manumission. Archdeacon Pope, of Jamaica, may be a very respect-
able man. He is not, however, exactly the person to be selected as an
impartial umpire on such a question as this. He married a few years
since a lady of Jamaica, possessing about 660 or 670 slaves, chiefly
engaged in sugar culture. Of these slaves, at least of the survivors of
them, the Archdeacon's lady is still the owner. We say the survivors
of them ; for between the years 1824 and 1830 they appear to have
diminished in number about ten per cent. — we pretend not to say from
what cause. Sir C. B. Codrington, therefore, cannot be surprised if the
venerable Archdeacon's opinions should not be received as adding
any great weight to his own. The testimony of his own manager, Mr.
James, indeed, as given in his first letter, seems to establish the fitness

312 Correspondence of Sir C. B. Codrington, Sj-c.

of his slaves for enfranchisement— as he shows that they require little
either of control or coercion to provide for themselves, and to main-
tain the public peace ; and that even had Mr. James never returned
to them after some of his long absences, and had thus left them to their
own devices, no very grievous calamity would have been likely to follow,
either to themselves or to the peace of Barbuda. And yet Sir C. B.
Codrington wishes us to believe that, if those slaves were unhappily
manuniitted, three-fourths of them would perish by the end of two
years. This fertile island, containino- probably upwards of 100,000
acres, produces, by the actual labour of his 500 slaves, and, as he asserts,
with little or no coercion, " cattle, swine, horses, mules, corn and other
provisions," for their own abundant supply and for that of the neigh-
bouring islands. And yet Sir C. B. Codrington would persuade us that,
if these 500 slaves were freed, not a fourth of them would be in existence
at the end of two years ! Would the soil of Barbuda, then, lose its
fertility, or the slaves their capacity of tilling it, by the mere act of
manumission ?

But Sir C. B. Codrington asserts that many of his slaves would not
accept of manumission, and one man is specified who refuses to allow
his daughter to be emancipated. The inference intended to be drawn
from this fact, supposing it to be no mistake, is not that there is some-
thing peculiar in the case of the attachment of these slaves to Sir
C. B. Codrington (a fact which he might be indulged in the vanity of
believing) ; but that, generally speaking, slavery is a blessing — and
freedom a curse.

Now, how strangely have slave-holders been hitherto mistaken as to
the principles of human nature on this point ! Whenever slaves have
distinguished themselves by eminent services, or whenever it has been
the policy of the master to tempt them to reveal plots or conspiracies
against his own authority, the highest reward that he thought could be
bestowed, or the most tempting boon that could be offered, was the gift
of freedom. And yet Sir C. B. Codrington assures us that kis slaves, con-
trary to all recognized principle, and to all past experience, repudiate
freedom as an evil, and not a good. If, indeed, the consequence of
freedom would be, as he would persuade us— the destruction, in two
years, of three-fourths of the persons so made free, they might be
excused for clinging to slavery as a blessing, and rejecting freedom
as a curse. They might, however, very reasonably be led to ques-
tion the probability of any such alarming result. For, if they did but
cast their eyes across the channel dividing Barbuda from Antigua, they
might be emboldened to encounter all the fearful risks with which their
master threatens them, by considering the case of the 37 1 Africans men-
tioned in our last number as having been emancipated by the Crown four
years ago. These Negroes were previously placed in most disadvantage-
ous circumstances as compared with the slaves of Sir C. B. Codrington ;
and yet it has not been stated that any such calamity has befallen
them, or that they have sustained any extraordinary mortality by the in-
fliction upon them of the alleged curse of freedom. Why should the
500 Barbuda slaves of this gentleman be greater sufferers by emanci-
pation than the 371 Antigua Negroes set free by the Crown ?

liOtidon :-Printed by S. Bagster, Jun., 14, Bartkolomew Close : and Sold at the Anti-Slavery Society's'
Office, No. 18, AldermanWry, and at the Depot established at Mr. Bagster's Bible Warehouse, No.
15, Paternoster Row, where a list is to be obtained, gratis, of all publications interesting to the
Friends of Negro Pmancipatioh.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

. No. 104.] DECEMBER 31, 1832. [Vol. v. No. 13.

ANALYSIS OF THE REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS ON THE EXTINCTION OF SLAVERY, WITH
NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

On the 24th of May, 1832, a select Committee of the House
of Commons was " appointed to consider and report upon the
measures which it might be expedient to adopt for the purpose
of effecting the extinction of slavery throughout the British
Dominions at the earliest period compatible with the safety of
all classes in the colonies, and in conformity/ loith the resolutions
of this House of the I5th of Mai/, 1823 ;" the words in italics
being superadded to Mr. Buxton's resolution, on the motion of
Viscount Althorp — 162 voting for them, and 90 against them.

The following members were thereupon selected for this Com-
mittee, on the proposition of the noble Viscount r-^ — Mr. Buxton,
Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, Sir James Graham, Sir
George Murray, Mr. Goulburn, Mr. Burge, Mr. Evans, Viscount
Sandon, Viscount Howick, Marquis of Chandos, Mr. Johnston,
Mr. Marryat, Mr. Vernon, Mr. Holmes, Dr. Lushington, Mr.
Baring, Mr. Frankland Lewis, Viscount Ebrington, Mr. Littleton,
Mr. Carter, Mr. Hodges, Mr. Ord, Mr. Fazakerley, and Mr.
Alderman Thompson.

The Committee commenced its sittings on the 6th of June,
and closed them on the 11th of August. The following is its
report made to the House on that day : —

" Your Committee, in pursuance of the instructions by which
they were appointed, having assembled to consider the ' measures
most expedient to be adopted for the extinction of slavery
throughout the British Dominions at the earliest period com-
patible with the safety of all classes in the colonies,' adverted in
the first instance to the condition contained in the terms of re-
ference, which provides that such extinction shall be ' in con-
formity with the resolutions of the House of the 15th of May,
1823,' — that this House at that time looked forward to such a
progressive improvement in the character of the slave population
as might prepare them for a participation in those civil rights
and privileges which are enjoved by other classes of his

' " 2t

314 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

Majesty's subjects. The House also then declared * that it was
anxious foi* the accomplishment of this purpose at the earliest
period compatible with the well-being of the slaves themselves,
with the safety of the colonies, and with a fair and equitable
consideration of the interests of private property.'

" In the consideration of a question involving so many diffi-
culties of a conflicting nature, and branching into subjects so
various and complicated, it appeared necessary to your Com-
mittee, by agreement, to limit their direct enquiries to certain
heads.

" It was therefore settled that two main points arising out of
the terms of reference should be first investigated, and these
were embraced in the two following propositions : —

" 1st. That the slaves, if emancipated, would maintain them-
selves, would be industrious, and disposed to acquire property
by labour.

" 2nd. That the dangers of convulsion are greater from free-
dom withheld, than from freedom granted to the slaves.

" Evidence was first called to prove the affirmative of these
propositions, and had been carried on, in this direction, to a
considerable extent ; and was not exhausted, when it was evident
the session was drawing to a close ; and that this most import-
ant and extensive enquiry could not be satisfactorily finished.
At the same time your Committee was unwilling to take an
ex parte view of the case. It was therefore decided to let in evi-
dence of an opposite nature, intended to disprove the two
propositions, and to rebut the testimony adduced in their
support. Even this limited examination has not been fully
accomplished, and your Committee is compelled to close its
labours in an abrupt and unfinished state.

" With some few exceptions the enquiry has been confined to
the island of Jamaica ; and the important question of what is
due to ' the fair and equitable consideration of the interests of
private property,' as connected with emancipation, has not been
mvestigated by your Committee.

" Many incidental topics which your Committee could not
leave have presented themselves in the course of this enquiry ;
and some opinions have been pronounced, and some expressions
used by witnesses, which may seem to be injurious to the cha-
racter of persons in high stations in the colonies.

" Unwilling to present the evidence in a garbled state, your
Committee have resolved not to exclude from their minutes tes-
timony thus implicating the conduct of public functionaries ; but
they are bound to impress on the House the consideration which
it is j ust constantly to remember, that no opportunity of contra-
dicting, or explaining, those statements have been afforded to the

on the Extinction of Slavery. 315

parties accused ; and evidence of this description must be re-
ceived with peculiar caution.

" Your Committee, however, are unwilling that the fruits of
their enquiry should be altogether lost ; and they present the
evidence taken before them to the House, which, although in-
complete, embraces a wide range of important information, and
discloses a state of affairs demanding the earliest and most se-
rious attention of the legislature."

The minutes of evidence extend to 655 closely printed folio
pages, and are contained in a volume ordered to be printed on
the 11th of August, 1832, and distinguished by the number 721.
Of this immense mass it shall now be our endeavour to convey
to the public, and to our readers, a clear and faithful analysis.
It may be convenient, however, to preface that analysis by a
brief account of the witnesses examined on this occasion, and
of their opportunities of acquiring a competent knowledge of
the subject on which they were called to give their testimony.

On the AFFIRMATIVE side of the question, as to the expe-
niENCY of an immediate or early extinction of slavery, the fol-
lowing witnesses were produced, viz.

1. William Taylor, Esq. (p. 7 — 64), who went to Jamaica in 1816,
and left it in 1823. He returned in 1824, left it again in 1825, re-
turned to it in 1826, and quitted it finally in 1831. Of these 15 years
he resided during 13 in Jamaica. For the chief part of that time he
was engaged in commercial pursuits in Kingston, intermixed with oc-
casional visits to plantations in various parts of the island, viz. — St.
Thomas in the East, Trelawny, St. Elizabeth, Manchester, and St.
George ; but, for the last two or three years of his stay, he was wholly
occupied in the management of three sugar estates belonging to J. B.
Wildman, Esq., cultivated by about six or seven hundred Negroes,
lying in Vere, Clarendon, and St. Andrew's, on the last of which, Pa-
pine, he chiefly resided.

2. The Rev. John Barry (p. 64 — 106), a Wesleyan Missionary, who
went to Jamaica early in 1825, and quitted it early in 1832, but whose
actual residence there, having been absent about a year, did not exceed
six years. These were passed chiefly in Kingston and Spanish Town,
but partly also in the parishes of St. Thomas in the Vale, St. Dorothy,
St. Mary, Trelawny, St. James, St. David, and St. Thomas in the
East.

3. The Rev. Peter Duncan (p. 106— 134, and p. 140—158), a
Wesleyan Missionary, who arrived in Jamaica in January, 1821, and
quitted it in March, 1832, after an uninterrupted residence of upwards
of eleven years in the parishes of Kingston, St. Thomas in the East, St.
Thomas in the Vale, and St. James.

4. The Rev. Thomas Gooper (p. 134 — 140), a Unitarian Mission-
ary, who, for three years and three months, between 1818 and 1821,

316 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

resided on a plantation in Hanover parish, Jamaica, belonging to R,

Hibbert, Esq.

5. Mr. Henry Loving (p. 150—167), a coloured gentleman, a na-
tive of Antigua, in which island he resided from his birth, till he paid
a visit a few months ago to this country. He was born a slave, but was
emancipated when about nine years of age, and has been for some time,
and now is, the proprietor and editor of a newspaper published in
Antigua, called the Weekly Register.

6. The Rev. John Thorp (p. 167—178), a clergyman of the church
of England, who resided in Jamaica two years and three months in
1827, 1828, and 1829, as curate to the Rev. Mr. Trew, of St. Thomas
in the East.

7. The Rev. Wiltshire Stanton Austin (p. 178 — 195), a clergy-
man of the church of England, and a native of the West Indies, who
resided in Barbadoes, Demerara, Berbice, and Surinam, and occasion-
ally visited some of the other colonies. He quitted the West Indies
last in 1824, having resided there for about 14 years after he had at-
tained his 18th year. His father is a proprietor of slaves, whom he is
destined to inherit, and whom he was engaged in managing for some
years before he entered into the church.

8. Vice-Admiral the Hon. Charles Fleming (p. 195—223, and
p. 238^243), who has known the West Indies for 35 years, and has
visited them all, with the exception of St. Kitts and Tortola, his resi-
dence in the West Indies amounting on the whole to five or six years,
more than half of that time, namely, three years, between 1827 and
1830, having been passed at Jamaica, in which station he was Ad-
miral. He has also visited Cuba, the Caraccas, and Hayti.

9. Robert Sutherland, Esq. (p. 223 — 229), a gentlemen of co-
lour, who had been in Hayti in 1815, and had also resided there during
1819, 1820, and 1821. He passed a few days there in 1823 and 1824,
and was there for a few weeks in 1827; and he moreover resided for
three years in the Caraccas as a British Consul.

10. The Rev. Nathaniel Paul (p. 229 — 233), also a gentleman of
colour, a native of the United States, who resided as a Baptist Mission-
ary in various slave states until 1830, when he visited England.

11. The Rev. Thomas Morgan (p. 233— 242), a Wesleyan Mis-
sionary, who had resided in different West India colonies, namely St.
Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, St. Vincent, and Jamaica, from 1812 to 1831,
18 years in all, which, deducting an absence of two years in England,
makes his residence there 16 years.

12. The Rev. William Knibb (p. 243—284, and 317—322), a
Baptist Missionary, who resided upwards of seven years in Jamaica,
namely from 1825 to April 1832, chiefly in the parishes of St, James,
Trelawny, Hanover, and Westmoreland.

To prove the inexpediency of an early or immediate eman-
cipation of the slaves the following- wellnesses w^ere produced
chiefly by the Colonial party : —

on the Extinction of Slavery. 317

1. Captain C. H. Williams, of the Royal Navy (p. 390— 307), who
passed a fewmonths of the present year in St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua,
Barbadoes,andJamaica, during which time he was on shore three days
on the estate of Mr. Huggins,* of Nevis, and two days on an estate of
Mr. Hibbert's, in Hanover, Jamaica. f

2. William Alers Hankey, Esq., a banker of London (p. 307 —
317), and late treasurer of the London Missionary Society, who is a
proprietor of 300 slaves in the island of Jamaica, but who has never
visited the West Indies.

3. James de Peyster Ogden, a native of New York, in the United
States (p. 322 — 330), who now resides in Liverpool.

4. Robert Scott, Esq. (p. 330 — 358), who resided ^in Jamaica
about five years between 1802 and 1809, and who, during that time,
had either owned as proprietor, or managed as attornej^, 4000 slaves in
Hanover, Trelawny, St. James, and St. Ann, the latest period of his
stay there being 23 years ago.

5. James Simpson, Esq. (359—366, and 369—405), who resided in
Jamaica nearly 24 years, quitting it finally in 1828. In that time he
had been a merchant of Kingston, and the representative of some no-
blemen and gentlemen, absentee proprietors of plantations situated in
Vere, Clarendon, St. Mary, St. George, St. Andrew, St. David, Port
Royal, St. Thomas in the East, St. Elizabeth, and Hanover, in that
island. It was of his house that Mr. William Taylor, whose evidence
is analysed in the following pages, was for a time a partner.

6. William Mier, Esq. (p. 366—369), a native of the United
States, who was the proprietor in Georgia of 500 slaves, whom he has
since sold.

7. The Rev. John Shipman (405—416), a Wesleyan Missionary,
who resided in Jamaica for ten years, from 1813 to 1824, at Kingston,
Spanish Town, Falmouth, and Montego Bay, and at Grateful Hill, in
St. Thomas in the Vale.

8. The Rev. Robert Young (p.416— 428), a Wesleyan Missionary,
who resided in Jamaica for five years, from 1820 to 1826, chiefly in
Kingston and Spanish Town, and at Stony Hill, in St. Andrew's.

9. William Shand, Esq. (p. 428—434; p. 459—484; and p. 542),
who was a proprietor and attorney of estates in Jamaica from 1791 to
1826 ; having resided there 34 years. During that time he had under
his charge 18 or 20,000 slaves, residing occasionally in almost every
parish in the island. He was also a magistrate, and member of As-
sembly.

10. Bryan Adams, Esq, (p. 443—452), who had resided in the
Caraccas.

* Of this gentleman, an ample and horrific record will be found in the follow-
ing parliamentary papers of 1812 : viz. No. 204, and No. 225.

t Of this estate a very full account will be found in the pamphlet entitled
" Negro Slavery, especially in Jamaica," published by Hatchard in 1824. 4th
edition, p. 36 — 55.

31 8 Report of a Covimittee of the House of Commons

11. Mr, John Ford Pyke (p. 452), who had resided in Cuba.

12. William Watson, Esq. (p. 452—459), who had resided in the
Caraccas for four years.

13. H. TowNSEND BoAVEN, Esq. (p. 457 — 459), who had resided 11
years in Trinidad, and returned thence last year.

14. R. G. Amyot, Esq. (p. 484 and 519), chief clerk in the Registry
of Colonial Slaves' Office, in London.

15. Samuel Baker, Esq. (p. 485 — 498), who had visited Jamaica
in 1816 and 1817, and afterwards in 1832.

16. Andrew Graham Dignum (p. 498 — 501), who is a practising
solicitor in Jamaica, where he has neither land nor slaves, but where
he has resided for 14 years, namely, from 1818 to 1832.

17. Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Rowley (p. 501 — 508), who is ac-
quainted with the West Indies generally, and commanded as Admiral
on the Jamaica station from 1820 to 1823.

18. James Beckford Wildman, Esq. (p. 509 — 542), who is a
West India proprietor possessing 640 slaves in Jamaica, on three es-
tates, one in St. Andrew, another in Vere, and a third in Clarendon,
of which Mr. Taylor (mentioned above) had for a time the charge. Mr.
Wildman resided there from 1825 to 1828, being about four years.

19. Rev. J. Tyers Barrett, D.D. (p. 544 — 549), who is secretary
to the Society for the Conversion of Negro Slaves.

20. William Burge, Esq. (p. 549), the late Attorney-General of
Jamaica, and now the Agent of that island.

21. John M'Gregor, Esq. (p, 549), a gentleman who has resided
in British America.

The Appendix moreover contains the following evidence : —

A. General Returns of Twelve Sugar Estates in Jamaica from 1817
to 1829 (p, 566-577).

B. Extracts of Reports of the Society for the Conversion of Negro
Slaves (p. 588, 589),

C. Extracts from the examination of Annasamy, a native of Madras
residing in the Mauritius (p. 590).

D. Remarks of Captain' Elliott, Protector of slaves in Demerara (p.
590).

E. Answers of the same to Questions of Lord Goderich (p. 598).

It will appear from the report of the Committee that'the main points of
their enquiry were embraced by the two following propositions, including,
in fact, all that Mr. Buxton, in moving for that Committee, had pledged
himself, or even thought it necessary to attempt to prove, viz : —

1. That the slaves, if emancipated, will adequately
maintain themselves by their own labour ; and 2nd. That

THE DANGER OF AVITHHOLDlNG FREEDOM FROM THE SLAVES IS
greater THAN THAT OF GRANTING IT.

These two propositions, we conceive, the evidence before us has most
irrefragably and triumphantly established ; and the controversy, there-

Q71 the Extinction of Slavery. — -Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 319

fore, as respects the expediency of an early emancipation, may be con-
sidered as decided.* Tlie justice and humanity of such a measure has
long ceased to be a question.

We will abstract the whole of the evidence on these two points in the
order in which it is given, omitting however, for the present, all merely
collateral questions until this first and most important part of our task
shall have been completed. We have already introduced the witnesses,
who are successively to appear before them, to the notice of our
readers, accompanied by a brief view of their respective opportunities
of information.

I. Mr. Taylor stated that the six or seven hundred slaves placed
under his management by Mr. Wildman belonged to three sugar
estates on the south side of the island : one of which was in the parish
of St. Andrews, named Papine; another in the parish of Clarendon,
named Low Ground ; and the third in the parish of Vere, named Salt
Savannah. On the two first-mentioned estates the slaves wholly main^
tained themselves by provisions raised on land allotted for their use,
to which was added the usual allowance of pickled fish, being about
one salt herring a day for each adult, and half that quantity for each
child. The slaves on the estate in Vere were fed chiefly by an allow-
ance of Guinea corn, issued from the granary of the estate. They had
grounds besides which they cultivated ; but the seasons being adverse

* At Manchester and at Liverpool, a Mr. Borthwick, in delivering lectures in
favour of Slavery, took occasion to state that the evidence before the House of
Commons was highly favourable to the planters. It was affirmed that it was
some proof to the contrary that Mr. Burge, the Agent of Jamaica, had resisted,
in the House of Commons, the motion of Sir James Graham, for printing that
evidence. On this Mr. Borthwick produced, or pretended to produce, a strong
denial of this fact under the hand of Mr. Burge himself, falsifying the statement
which had appeared to that effect in the Times of the 7th of August, 1832. The
Jamaica Courant however (the oracle of Mr. Burge, and of his constituents, the
corresponding committee of the Jamaica Assembly) completely falsifies Mr.
Borthwick's statement, and that of Mr. Burge too, if tridy represented by Mr.
Borthwick ; for on the 26th of September, 1832, there appeared in that paper the
following paragraph, probably communicated by Mr. Burge himself: —

" House of Commons, August 6, 1832.
" Sir J. Graham moved that the Report of the Committee on West India
Slavery be laid on the table of the House.

" Mr. Burge objected to the motion because the evidence of the planters had
not yet been taken, and that of the other party might therefore prejudice the
public mind.

" Sir J. Graham replied that the motion was a matter of course, and that the
hon. member had been overruled in every case before the Committee.
" The motion was then agreed to." — Jamaica Courant, Sept. 26, 1832.
Now even the reason here given for postponing the printing of the evidence is
untrue, the number of witnesses on the part of the West Indian body being
greater than that of the witnesses brought before the Committee by the Anti-
Slavery party, and the space occupied by the evidence of the former being not
inferior in extent to the space occupied by that of their opponents, being about
290 folio pages to each.

320 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

m Vere they were chiefly fed by corn grown by the master and issued
to them from his stores.* Tiie ground provisions, which the slaves
raise for themselves in the other parishes, are chiefly yams, plantains,
cocoes or eddoes, potatoes, &c. The slaves are not forbidden by law,
as Mr. Taylor thinks, to cultivate the sugar cane, but they incur a
penalty by having sugar in their possession. f

Besides the allowance of herrings given to the slaves, clothes are
annually given to them ; but the quantity of clothing Mr. Taylor cannot
specify. The time allowed them by law, for raising the food by
which they and their families are supported, is twenty-six days in
the year, besides three holidays at Christmas. This arrangement,
Mr. Taylor says, has existed since 1816; but he cannot tell what
time, for this purpose, the law previously gave to the slaves. %

* This parish, as we shall have occasion to show, is more favourably situated
jn respect to the circumstances of its slave population than any other parish in
the island of Jamaica. And yet, will it be believed that there is even here no in-
crease of the slave population, even if we do not take into account the number
imported into it from neighbouring parishes, the population in 1821 being 7,887,
and in 1831, after a lapse often years, being only 7,908 ?

f Throughout the whole of this examination there is a wonderful ignorance
manifested, especially by the planters, of the state of the law by which they and
the slaves are governed. If the reader will turn to the latest Jamaica Slave
Code, that of the 19th of Feb. 1831,— and in this respect it is only a transcript of
preceding codes, — he will find that by the 91st Section of that Act it is enacted,
" That, to prevent and punish depredations on produce," " if any slave shall
have in his possession any quantity of sugar, coffee, or pimento, in quantity not
exceeding jive pounds, or of rum not exceeding one gallon, unknown to his ovv'ner,
overseer, or manager, without giving a satisfactory account of how he became
possessed of them, such slave, on conviction thereof before any magistrate, shall
suffer punishment, not exceeding thirty-nine lashes ; and, if there shall be found
in his possession a larger quantity than twenty pounds of sugar, coffee, or pimento,
or five gallons of rum, then such slave, upon conviction thereof at a slave court,
shall suffer such punishment as the court shall think proper to inflict or direct,
not extending to life, transportation, or imprisonment for life." Well, therefore,
may West Indians gravely testify to the unwillingness of the slaves to grow
sugar, and well may Mr. Taylor testify to the infrequency of the culture of
sugar by slaves. He had never seen or heard of its being cultivated but in Man-
chester, where he has seen it voluntarily cultivated by slaves, and where
also he has seen small sugar-mills in the Negroes' gardens — " but that," he adds,
" is to be accounted for, because there they are at a distance from a sugar dis-
trict." Report p. 7, 8. See this matter further illustrated in the Anti-Slavery
Reporter, vol. v.. No. 101, p. 269.

X Before 1816 the law was as follows (See Privy Council Report of 1789,
Part iii. ; Laws of Jamaica, Act of 1788, section 17) :: — " And whereas it hath
been usual and customary with the planters in this island to allow their slaves
one day in every fortnight to cultivate their own provision grounds (exclusive of
Sundays), except during the time of crop, but the same not being compulsory,
be it further enacted, that the slaves belonging to or employed in every planta-
tion or settlement, shall, over and above the usual holidays, be allowed one day
in every fortnight (exclusive of Sundays) except during the time of crop, under
the penalty of £lO." This grant of time, crop lasting from four to six months,
could not have been more than from thirteen to seventeen days. The dreadful
mortality from hunger at that period, as shown by a memorial of the Jamaica

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 32l

The younger Negroes on Mr. Wildman's estates had never received
any instruction prior to his visiting Jamaica for the first time in 1826.
This was done in consequence of the express injunctions of Mr. Wild-
man himself. The adults now receive no education whatever. As to the
capacity of the slaves for receiving instruction, they were much like
other human beings ; some were apt, and others very stupid, and some
remarkably acute. He could not say they were equally apt with the
Scottish peasantry ; but their circumstances were disadvantageous in a
peculiar degree, and in spite of these he had seen, in a multitude of in-
stances, a wonderful aptness for instruction. There appeared in them
no natural incapacity whatever for instruction. He had been struck
with the retentiveness and minuteness of their memories, and especially
in the children.

With respect to the provident or improvident use of money, he
thought them pretty much like the peasantry of other countries, but
considerably less given to intoxication than the peasantry of Scotland,
and infinitely less than the soldiery who go out to the colonies, the
mortality among whom is attributed to their fondness for spirits. There
were on the estates some Negroes who would not touch spirits, while
others were incorrigible drunkards. Any money he paid the Negroes
at any time for wages was generally expended in the purchase of food
(page 9, 10).

Mr. Taylor had known many free blacks and people of colour : they
form a numerous body. There are among them many^ especially mu-
lattoes and quadroons, the children of white book-keepers and over-
seers, who have been emancipated ; but the great mass of them have
been born free, being the children of emancipated slaves. The great
increase of their number arises from births in a state of freedom.
In the neighbourhood of Papine, some of these free people who had
;been emancipated, unable to find adequate employment as mechanics
in the town of Kingston, had fixed themselves at a place called Cava-
liers, belonging to Mr. Wildman, which was parcelled out to them in
small patches of one, two, or three acres, for which, with a house upon
it, they undertook to pay thirty shillings an acre. The run of land call-
ed Cavaliers was let by Mr. Wildman to one tenant, and by him
sub-let in smaller portions, Mr. Wildman finding it difficult and trou-
blesome to collect the rents. The tenant-in-chief cultivated a part of
the land by means of free Negroes, to whom he paid wages, and the rest
he sub-let. The number thus located might be from 200 to 300, men,
women, and children. The cultivation consisted generally of provi-
sions, as corn and yams, with some coffee. He had never seen any

Assembly printed in the same Privy Council Report, sufficiently prove how ne-
cessary it was to make even this scanty allowance of time compulsory. FifteeS
thousand slaves are stated by the Assembly to have perished from hunger, and
the diseases consequent on hunger, in a very short time, simply because the little
time allowed the slave obliged him to limit his growth ©f provisions to plan-
tains, which the first hurricane was sure to sweep from the face of the earth.

2 u

322 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

sugar cultivation there, though there were sugar estates in the district,
and sugar would grow any where. Of the settlers he knew nothing
personally. Some he believed were orderly, and some disorderly ; and
it was the haunt of many bad characters and runaways. The settle-
ment he believed was in a bad state, both morally and religiously, for
they had no religious instruction, and no education. A school was lat-
terly established among them by the Church Missionary Society, which
was readily supported by some of the settlers ; but others scoffed at it,
and would have nothing to do with it. It might be the duty of the
incumbent of the parish to afford them instruction, but he lived sixteen
miles off. Mr. Taylor had further known free blacks employ them-
selves in working on wharfs, and at cranes, and as domestics. He
had one servant himself as a slave for ten years, who continued with
him after he had manumitted him. Others were employed as mecha-
nics on estates, and others as sailors in coasting vessels, and as stew-
ards of ships. He had met with a great number of them who were
very industrious, and who gladly availed themselves of any opportu-
nity of being employed in any way. On the other hand he had met
with free blacks who would not work at all, just as in other com-
munities. He had only known- one case of an emancipated slave work-
ing on a sugar estate in making sugar. Mr. Wildman discovered that
one of his slaves had been born in England ; and, conceiving that he
could have no right to hold him in slavery, he very honourably, in spite
of the protestations of his colonial friends, when he first went out to
Jamaica, determined on making him amends for the services unjustly
exacted from him for thirty years. He gave him, though he was ad-
dicted to drinking, a right of residence on his estate, hired him as a
carpenter, and appointed 2*. Qd. a day to be paid him, whether he
worked or not. When Mr. Taylor entered on the management of the
estate he thought it wrong, as it respected the man himself, to let him
go on in this manner. He therefore let him understand that when he
got drunk his pay should be stopped for that day. The consequence
was he gradually left off drinking, and he worked and made up money.
Sometimes he would have a drunken fit, and at other times, for weeks
and months together, would remain steadily at labour. Under this
system he worked very well as a carpenter, and even took his turn of
duty in the boiling house.

He had never known an instance of a free black taking the hoe, and
working in the field with the gang, or in the boiling house; but he had
known slaves to work for wages in their extra time on sugarestates. Soon
after he took charge of Papine, a long line of fence was to be made between
that and the Duke of Buckingham's estate, formed by a trench of four
feet deep, with a mound thrown up. It is usual to do such labour by
task work, at so many feet a day. The labourers complained that they
could not perform it in the usual hours of labour. The overseer on the
other hand affirmed that they were imposing upon me, and it was solely
owing to sloth that they did not easily get through their task. The
overseer wished of course to get as much work as he could, and they had

on the Extinctio7i of Slavery . — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 323

naturally an indisposition to do more than they could help. They were told
to resume their work the following morning, and, if they performed it
within the time, they should be paid for every minute's or hour's addi-;
tional work they might perform. They began the task at five in the
morning, and had finished it by half-past one, and the very slaves who
had before complained, received pay for four hours' extra labour. At
present all the negroes in the field perform their labour under the fear
or impulse of the lash. Physical coercion is employed on every estate
in the island to obtain labour from slaves. By banishing the use of
the whip, Mr. Taylor found that discipline was necessarily relaxed.
This coercion is necessary with slaves in all kinds of labour. The car-
penter or cooper knows that if he does not go to his shop and do his work
he will be flogged. In short it was necessary, in order to induce the
Negroes to work, either to pay them or to flog them. It was possible,
however, to conduct the business of an estate without much flogging.
Still it was the terror of the lash which produced the labour. On the
estate next to Papine (Hope Estate, belonging to the Duke of Buck-
ingham), the driver certainly carried the whip into the field, but for
many months it has not been used, the negroes going on, nevertheless,
most diligently with their work. But this disuse of the whip had been
produced by the previous use of it. The overseer, when he first took
charge of that estate, found the Negroes disposed to resist him, and the
whip for a time was " most freely and strongly used," and this, Mr. Tay-
lor thinks, not from any motive of cruelty, but from a belief that
" it was the only way to establish his authority." He used the whip
most freely, and this free use it was that produced the subsequent dis-
use* (pages 11 and 12).

With the exception of labouring in the workhouse chain, and clean-
ing the streets of towns, field labour is viewed by slaves as the mostde-
grading occupation. It is considered, for example, a degrading punish-
ment to send a household servant to the field. Many humane persons
prefer doing so to flogging them. The labour of cultivating sugar is
not more degrading than other field labour, but it is much more severe.
" Cane-hole digging is fearfully severe," especially in certain soils.
Tliere are other field occupations that are light. Comparing the West
Indian slave with the Scotch labourer, he thought cane-hole digging
more exhausting than digging potatoes, or reaping corn, or following
the plough. If the Scotchman had been digging, and the Negro had
been cleaaing young canes, the Scotchman would have done the hard-
est work ; but if the Scotchman had been reaping or mowing, and the
Negro had been digging cane-holes, then the Negro would have done
the hardest work. Taking the labour of the whole year through, cer-
tainly the labour of the Jamaica slave was infinitely harder than that of
the Scotch peasant, because the former has the night work in.croptime,
when for at least four months of the year he has only six hours' rest ;

* The stimulus was still the brutal one of either the infliction or the fear of
the lash.

324 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

whereas the Scotchman goes to bed every night throughout the year in
good time. Besides this, the Negro works each day a greater length
of time than the Scotchman, but the Scotchman puts more work out
of hand. The proportion of time consumed in cane-hole digging
varies very much in different parts of the island, according to the com-
parative fertility of the soil ; on less fertile soils a third of the cane
land requiring to be re-dug every year, and, on very fertile soils, not
more than a tenth, or fifteenth, or twentieth part (p. 12, 13). The la-
bour of the slaves is often so exhausting that the overseer is obliged to
give them a week's rest to recruit their strength, by setting them to
clear pastures, and other light work.

Mr. Taylor, being asked whether the stimulus of the whip, at present
the only stimulus, being withdrawn, and the Negro made free, he
thought he would be likely to work industriously for adequate wages,
replied that, if the Negro is placed in a situation where he must starve
or work, he would work. If in the present state of things he were to be
told, Keep your provision ground, and keep your house, and come
and work for a shilling or other sum a day, he would say, I will not
do it ; for I can make more by working my grounds. But if the grounds
were taken away, and he must understand that he must starve or work,
he would work. The consideration by which in the case of freemen the
matter would be governed would be this, whether it were most profitable
to receive' wages, or to rent land and raise produce upon it. If put
into a situation where the fear of want would bear upon him, and the
inducement to work was plain, then he would work. He drew this
opinion partly from his knowledge of emancipated slaves, but chiefly
from his knowledge of the slaves under his own care, among whom
the good preponderated far above the bad. He found them like the
Scottish peasantry, fulfilling all the relations of life. He found them
revering the ordinance of marriage. He found them, particularly on
the Vere estate, an orderly and industrious people ; and he was strong-
ly impressed with the opinion that, if placed in the circumstances of
the English or Scottish peasantry, they would act similarly. They
were, generally speaking, very industrious in labouring on their pro-
vision grounds. It was a frequent practice to work for one another for
hire, the hire being 20 J. currency a day {\Ad. sterling), and a breakfast.
Mr. Wildman indulged his Negroes with fifty-two Saturdays in the
year, instead of twenty-six, the number allowed them by law, that they
might be able to attend divine service, and have no excuse for continuing
to work on Sunday. This gave them additional time ; and as Mr. T. had
a large garden, and was very unwilling to draw from the labour of the
estate to keep it in order, he was frequently in the habit of hiring them
to work there. Some would come and offer their services, for which he
gave them their breakfast and 2s. lie?, a day currency, being 2*. \d.
sterling. He was decidedly of opinion that, when an offer was made to
pay Negroes for their labour, they were always ready to work. He had
known them, even when digging cane-holes, perform the task of 120
pane-holes, and, on being offered pay, dig 20 and 40 cane-holes, after

on the Extinction of Slavery .-^Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 325

having finished their task. But, by the ordinary method, the same
quantity would not have been dug except by tremendous whipping.
Ninety cane-holes indeed on unploughed land was the general task ;
but 120 if the land had previously been loosened by the plough. The
farther exertion, however, produced by the stimulus of wages was such
that the driver said it was too much for them, and begged Mr. Taylor
to interdict their doing so much. At the end of the week almost every
slave had done so much extra work as to receive 3*. 4c?., which he paid
them, according to agreement. If they had worked in the usual way under
the whip they might have finished 120 holes in the course of the day,
barely completing it at the end of the day ; but if told that, if they did
the same work, they might as soon as it was done go' away , they would,
by abridging their intervals of rest, finish it before three o'clock in the
afternoon, beginning at five in the morning" (p. 14, 15).

Much the same quantity of labour, Mr. Taylor further remarked,
was usually required from all in the great gang. They all usually
worked in one line, and where the land was uniform produced the same
number of holes, and the women the same as the men. By giving them,
however, task work, and wages for extra work, he got the greatest
quantity of work their physical strength was equal to. He got much
more work, and it was cheerfully done. In general he found them wil-
ling to work in their extra time, for hire ; he spoke only of Mr. Wild-
man's slaves. Task work indeed was very generally resorted to, plant-
ers thinking that in that way the Negro did his work in a much shorter
time. At the same time he was convinced that a mixed system of
slavery with its unavoidable expences, and free labour with its wages,
would not answer in the long run. He conscientiously believed that if
slavery were put an end to, and the slaves emancipated, it would an-
swer to the proprietor. So entirely was he convinced of this that he
offered to embark his whole property in purchasing Mr, Wildman's es-
tates, making the slaves free, and adopting the system of free labour,
and undertaking the expense of maintaining the schools established
by Mr. Wildman, provided he could prevail on a few others to join him.
He was now, however, of opinion, from further reflection, that it would
have been disadvantageous to have had freedom on one estate and
slavery on the next, — to have had freedom on Mr. Wildman's estates,
and slavery on the adjoining estates of Mr. Goulburn, in Vere, and the
Duke of Buckingham's in St. Andrew, and Mr. Mitchell's in Clarendon.
This chequered system would not answer; though he firmly believed that
if the plan were supported by due authority, and the slaves were to re-
ceive adequate remuneration for their labour, the majority of them
would work, and the plan would succeed. He admitted that if a herald
were at once to proclaim freedom in Spanish Town, in unqualified
terms, to all slaves, anarchy and confusion might be the result. But,
by proceeding cautiously, and previously providing the means of re-
straint, and, above all, by making it known to the slave that it was the
King's pleasure that he should^; still labour when he became free, and
if the planters concurred in using this language, so as to remove all

326 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

idea that the King and his master were at variance, the freedom of
the slaves might be safely, and easily, and even profitably accomplish-
ed. He wished to draw a broad line of distinction between freedom
indefinitely conferred, and freedom accompanied by effective contem-
poraneous arrangements, even stronger laws than are now in force, but
laws equally affecting all ;— strong regulations of police, which should
punish vagrancy, and secure to the slave an adequate return for his la-
bour. The police of the agricultural districts in Jamaica now consists of
the attorney and the overseer of the estate, the book-keepers under him,
and lastly, the drivers, who are usually slaves : the attorney and the over-
seer corresponding to the justice of the peace in England, and the drivers
to constables. On each estate there is now its prison-house : there
are also bilboes and other instruments of correction, which are em-
ployed by the overseer, &c., for restraint and punishment. Now, in
removing this system, a stipendiary magistracy and a constabulary
force must be instituted. In this way, by dividing the island into small
districts, with a stipendiary magistrate well instructed in the law, not an
ignorant planter unacquainted with the law, and a constabulary force
under his orders, tranquillity, it appeared to him, would be maintained.
The only difficulty would be the expense. As to the facility of obtaining
labour in these circumstances, the well disposed and industrious would
be guided entirely by the profit to be derived from it in choosing their
employment ; it would be a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. If
the men are paid they will work. Evil doers indeed might not submit to
the regular industry of a sugar plantation, especially if they could ac-
quire land of their own. Throughout the island there are little colonies
of free labourers. How they got their land he did not know, he sup-
posed by purchase. At present many free persons, who would object
on the present system to working on a sugar estate, work on wharfs,
in towns, or on board ship, or as domestics, and sometimes by con-
necting themselves with female slaves on estates, are domiciled in
the negro villages, and occupy themselves in tilling the land allowed
to their wives by the OAvners of the estates. He admitted that in all
cases much would depend on the character of individuals, and there
might be many who would not be uniformly industrious, and there
would also in many be a strong disposition to seize the lightest and
easiest work, and in whom the love of ease might be stronger than the
love of gain. They could not, however, obtain land but by grant from
the crown, or by purchase from individuals ; and from three to five
acres, according to the quality, would be required to maintain himself,
his wife, and a family of children of the ordinary size. Many of them, in
this way also, besides providing comfortable food and clothing, would
be induced to better their condition and to acquire what may be termed
the luxuries of life. Mr. Taylor came to this conclusion, from the con-
viction he had that many of the present slaves, judging from the ge-
neral style of their houses, and clothes, and furniture, had a keen relish
for the comforts of life ; many even of the field Negroes studying great
neatness and cleanliness, and even making attempts at style in their

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 327

houses and furniture, using plates and other conveniences of that
sort, and even wearing shoes on Sundays, being ashamed to go to
church without them, but carrying them in their hands like the
peasant women in Scotland, and putting them on when they drew
near the church : but though they did not walk in their shoes, they
did not walk barefoot ; they wore sandals. All these articles of use,
or show, or luxury, were got entirely by their own labour. Mr. Tay-
lor spoke of many of the slaves, especially on Mr. Wildman's es-
tates, as thus acting. On these estates the respectable part of the
slaves, the head men, had property of that description, consisting
of mahogany furniture, glass decanters, wine, beds, bedsteads, and
pictures, acquired not by the gift of their master, or of one another,
but the fruit, as he must infer, of their own labour. In the parish of
Vere particularly, the Negroes were well off, much better than in St. An-
drew and Clarendon. Their dress was different : at the church service in
Vere, he was struck with the expensiveness of their dress ; the women
were dressed in muslins, and Leghorn bonnets ; and the men in trowsers,
and broad-cloth coats. One day he remarked the difference to one of
the head people on Papine, the St. Andrew estate, and received from
him this explanation : — "Vere is a great corn country, and inconsequence
of the supply of corn furnished by the master, they rear large quan-
tities of poultry, and on the market day hucksters come from Kingston
by sea, and a considerable trade is carried on by this means, for the
supply of Kingston and the shipping in its harbour with poultry ; and
when a good season comes, as they are then enabled to raise food
enough from their own grounds, they save up their allowance of corn
from the master, and with that corn rear large quantities of poultry."
In Clarendon and St. Andrew the slaves of Mr. Wildman were poor,
as compared with those in Vere. This appeared to arise from the
sugar district in Clarendon being remote from any market, being six-
teen miles from the coast, and twenty miles from Spanish Town. The
slaves, therefore, could not turn their provisions into money. The Ne-
groes said they had enough to eat, but could not convert the food into
money. In Clarendon, the principal productions are cocoas and other
ground provisions ; of these they have abundance, but they cannot be
applied to the same purposes as the corn of Vere, and, moreover, they
have not the same command of a market. In St. Andrew it is better
than in Clarendon, but not so good as in Vere, because the soil is not
so fertile as in Vere ; but the locality as to a market is more favourable
than that of Clarendon, Kingston being only six or seven miles distant.
On most of the estates throughout the island, the prescribed quantity
of clothing is given to the slaves, and their grounds supply abun-
dance of provisions, even where there are no markets near, where
they can realize money ; but slave-coopers may make money by
working at their trade in their own time, viz. on Sundays and their
twenty-six days besides, making pails and other articles ; and slave-
carpenters and masons by executing jobs about other people's houses
f pages 18, 19, 20). Still he admitted that in many cases there were
great poverty and misery (page 19, question 142).

328 . Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

There are some estates, Mr. Taylor further stated, on Avhich slaves
are allowed to have cattle running on their owner's property, and which
they sold occasionally, but that that is not a general case. — p. 20.

At one time, Mr. Taylor observed, there was a strong impression'on
the minds of the slaves of St. Andrew that they were about to be made
free. This arose from the House of Assembly, in 1830, having given
to the free black and coloured people of the Colony the civil rights and
privileges enjoyed by the whites. There was consequently excited among
them in that parish an intense desire of freedom ; and being told]|that
many of the slaves on Papine were overheard speaking of its approach,
he sent for a respectable Negro, belonging to that estate, and spoke to
him on the subject of their paying for their cottages and lands by a
rent arising from wages, for which they should give a certain quantity of
their labour in return. He said that he thought they would be well off in
such a case. He said, "Sir, suddenly to take our lands would not do.
It would be better for us to have our lands and our houses, taking that as
part of our hire." And certainly, if they got a fair return for their labour,
Mr. Taylor thinks that they could afford to pay rent. — He also sent for a
Negro from Vere, and his statement was that they did not expect free-
dom, but only the privilege of additional days for themselves. He
also sent for another from Clarendon ; but in that remote parish, away
from the busy part of the island, the rumour had not been heard, and
the matter was not thought of. The desire of freedom was very pre-
valent among domestics as well as field-slaves. He had known persons,
especially in sickness and old age, indifferent to freedom, and the
head man on an estate may be indifferent to it, but that is not the case
generally. He could point out a head-driver, living on an estate where
his privileges and means of acqviiring property were great, and who,
considering freedom as the being turned out upon the open Savannah,*
said he would rather forego his freedom. Most of the cases of manu-
mission he had known were among domestic slaves, and among them
also most of the applications for manumission occurred ; but he does not
know that this is owing to a more intense desire of, but simply to greater
facilities of acquiring, freedom ; they therefore aim at it ; but generally
throughout the island, the slaves of all classes are anxious to obtain
their liberty. The exceptions are the aged invalid Negro, who has sur-
vived all his relations, and has a kind and wealthy master, or the
driver, whose appointments and allowances are good, who is led to con-
nect with the idea of freedom expulsion from the community in which he
lives and from office. If his office could be made to consist with free-
dom, he would not refuse it ; but if he thought he was to be forcibly
dispossessed of his house, and driven from his family, and sent out a
vagabond upon the face of the earth, much as he might value freedom,
he would not like it on those conditions. Though there may thus be
individual exceptions, j'^et decidedly, as a body, the slaves are desirous

So doubtless it was represented to him by those who knew better.

on the Exti'fiction of Slavery . — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 329

of liberty. He knew of no body of slaves who would be unwilling to
exchange slavery for freedom ; he had never heard of freedom being
tendered to a body of slaves and refused. He could not even call to
mind one instance of a slave having had his freedom offered and refusing
it, but he could call to mind almost hundreds of instances where press-
ing applications had been made for freedom by slaves, with applica-
tions to himself for money to enable them to buy it (p. 21, 22).

On Mr. Wildman's estates the slaves had privileges that were very
peculiar. They had, for the most part, in addition to the twenty-six
week-days allowed by law during the year, every Saturday as it came
round out of crop, and in crop every second Saturday, and every alter-
nate week in crop the half of Saturday, besides which no night work
was permitted on his estates during crop. His object was to give them
a full share of rest and sleep, and to preserve Sunday, at least as far as
he could, perfectly inviolate. Their children too were educated, and the
women were exempted from flogging. He would positively have dis-
charged any overseer who he knew had done so ; and even with the
men he went on the principle of having no corporal punishment : but in
spite of him, and of Mr. Taylor also, the whip was still used. The whip
appeared to the overseers to be essential, in some way or other, to the
maintenance of order. In one instance on Salt Savannah, it took place
contrary to Mr. Taylor's own express orders. Mr. Taylor admits that
it would be impossible to manage an estate on the present system with-
out the v/hip at one time or another : it may not be necessary to be al-
ways using it ; but it is essential to order and to labour, as a stimulus
which must be brought to act, either immediately or remotely. He
conceived that labour must have some stimulus, and this was the only
one applied, because the only one permitted by the state of things in
Jamaica. On his entering into the charge of Mr. Wildman's estates'
there was an understanding that, on his part, the estate was to be
managed on a moderate and humane system, or he would have nothing
to do with them ; and, on Mr. Wildman's, that Mr. Taylor would con-
form to his mode of management, or he would have nothing to do with
Mr. Taylor. The principle, therefore, on which he went, and from
which he never receded, was, that the pecuniary interest of the master
was to be secondary to the better interests and well-being of the slave ;
butMr.Taylor found that it was quite impossible to work the existing sys-
tem on that principle. There was a want of a stimulus which he could use.
That which alone he had, he could not, and would not use. He accord-
ingly wrote Mr. Wildman a letter, to intimate to him that he was dis-
appointed in all his expectations, and that he found that the system
would not work on the principle of humanity, and that it required a
harsh and coercive principle. His neighbours advanced before him,
simply because they could and did use a power which he would not
make use of. This letter was written in October, 1830 ; the following
is an extract from it : — "I must now advert to the subject on which you
have remarked in your last letter, namely, the civil condition of your
Negroes. I cannot refrain from being explicit on the subject ; my mind

2 X

330 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

has been unceasingly 'harassed by it. The retrospect, too, of the
months which have passed since your departure, only confirms me in
my opinions. I do not think that your estates can possibly be made to
yield, under the combined system of religion, humanity, and slavery.
There is in the latter, as it exists in Jamaica, a repugnance to unite
with the two former. By our system we take away the motive which
leads to labour on the neighbouring estates, — that is, the dread of the
lash : and we cannot substitute that which makes the English labourer
industrious, namely, the fear of want ; for the law of Jamaica compels
the slave proprietor to feed his slave, to clothe him, and to house him,
whatever the conduct of that slave may i.be.* True it is he may flog
him and imprison him, — but there our principles come in and prevent ;
for the first we turn away from, and the latter is a clumsy and dreadful
means of compelling obedience ; so that, between the two, the discipline
is relaxed. Your people are certainly quiet, and generally well con-
ducted ; but I am at the same time obliged to say that less work, I
think, is produced under our moderate and mild system than under the
harsh methods used by the majority of planters. The want is that of a
motive. After much anxious thought on the subject, I have come to the
conclusion that the only effectual remedy is emancipation. We are,
I conceive, in a strait: we must either go on to the ultimate measure of
freedom, or go back (which would appear to be impossible, as well as
inhuman) to the use of brute coercion. In the middle state we are
perplexed and retarded in our operations, simply because there is not a
sufficient stimulus. A labourer says he will not work : in England in-
stant dismissal is the consequence : in Jamaica, instant flogging fol-
lows.— Now, dismiss a labourer, I cannot ; — flog him, I will not."

In short, Mr. Taylor goes on to state, we must either have an extinction
of slavery, or be content to go on with the harsh and barbarous system
which now prevails. We must stimulate the slave to labour either by the
fear of want, or by the lash. In Jamaica you feed and clothe him whether
he works or not, but if he will not work you flog him. If it had not
been for the law of Jamaica, Mr. Taylor thinks he could have worked
upon him by other motives; but the law required him to swear every
quarter that he had provided him with food and clothing ; and therefore,
unless he committed perjury, he had no hold upon him but the lash.
He believed in the first instance that he should have succeeded in his
plan mentioned before (seep. 325) of buying these estates, after the plan
of a modified slavery had failed ; but he was misled by his strong wish to
try the experiment, and by the warm regard he felt for the slaves over
whom he had been placed. He saw that there were immense difficulties in
the way, in the then state of things, but he hoped they might be over-
come ; and at any rate he was so disgusted with what he was engaged
in, and so anxious to make the experiment, that he proposed, had he
got any others to join him, to purchase the three estates, to manumize

* Mr. Taylor must mean of course the conscientious slave proprietor, who
feels bound not to violate the law.

on the Extiiiction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 331

the Negroes belonging to them, who were connected with each other
by family ties, and to work them as free labourers, hoping to be sup-
ported in his plan by the local authorities. He could prevail on no one
to join him. Still he made the proposal for one of the estates, but it was
not accepted. Difficulties of various kinds might have arisen,but these
would have been much fewer had the whole slave population been
manumitted, and the government of this country been resolutely de-
termined to preserve order. He had no fear whatever that the slaves
would become unsettled, or turn vagrants, for he never saw any dis-
position in the negro mind to vagrancy. A Negro who has his house
and grounds will never wander, or run away, but from very bad treatment.
A man who has no ties on the estate, no family ties, will desert on re-
ceiving ill treatment ; but a head Negro, or even a respectable field
Negro who has his house and his land, his wife and his children, will
bear a great deal of ill treatment before he will run away. Very few
return into the woods as compared with the whole population. On one
estate he recollects 25 men deserting at aA^ery critical time of the year,
in the season of planting; but it was because the overseer had treated
them infamously. They vi^atched their opportunity and withdrew
into the woods when their services were most required. The proprietor
of the estate happened to arrive on the island at the time, and they in-
stantly returned. The overseer was dismissed, and another put in his
room, and the Negroes never went away afterwards. It would be diffi-
cult to say that they have the same ties to home as the English labour-
er, their situations being so unlike ; but still they have many strong ties
to home. If a gang of Negroes is bought or sold, it is with the greatest
difficulty they can be moved, and often the civil power must be called
in to force them : some are sent to the workhouse, and the rest are
terrified into submission. Mr. Taylor remembered an instance where a
large estate was broken up and the Negroes sold in separate gangs,
and one gang they had great difficulty in moving ; it was at last
moved about 25 miles. About eight months after, their new owner died,
and, he not having paid for them, they had to be moved again, when
the difficulty was as great as before (p. 24, 25).

Mr. Taylor, in reply to another series of questions, stated that the
law allows twenty-six week-days in the year, exclusive of Sundays and
the usual (three) holidays, for his provision grounds; and by this allow-
ance of time, together with his Sundays, the Negro in Jamaica main-
tains himself and his family. Multitudes of them consume their Sundays
in their grounds and in going to market. Besides this they have half
an hour each day for breakfast, and two hours interval in the middle
of the day. During that last interval many work on their own account
in their grounds or gardens or in other matters ; the half hour for
breakfast is usually consumed in rest in the field, often in the shade of a
tree. He cannot say how much labour in the year is sufficient to
enable a slave to satisfy his wants and those of his family, nor how much
land he requires for that purpose. But he knows that to a great extent
they cultivate their grounds and go to market on Sunday ; but he

332 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

cannot affirm that working all Sunday is universal- If, however, a
Negro were to devote his Sundays to repose he certainly could not
maintain himself and his family ; and, in fact, by the great majority of
them, Sunday is generally consumed in their grounds or in market-
ing. If they strictly observed the Sunday, having only their twenty-six
week-days, it would not be sufficient ; and even near the Missionary sta-
tions he remembered that the ministers complained that on certain Sun-
days the slaves never could attend service, and they had no congrega-
tion of them. — It was not the nature of the slaves' work, with the excep-
tion of cane-hole-digging, but the duration of it, of which they had to
complain. As for cane-hole digging, it was so hard that he had heard
overseers of plantations state as the chief objection to freedom that
they never could get cane-holes dug by free men. And certainly they
could not at the common rate of labour : it would require an immense
inducement. The slaves will certainly do much more for themselves
than when they work for their masters. Even when performing task-
work, they are different beings. A Negro will lift a load for himself
which it would require a severe flogging to make him lift for his master.
He had seen them travelling to market, groaning under a load of hard
wood timber which no overseer could make them carry. But the in-
ducement was great : they were sure to get a high price for it, and they
were labouring for themselves. He had often observed them, after
working for their masters, and for their own maintenance, prolong their
work to procure some little indulgences. Whenever they could
contrive by task-work, or other arrangements, to obtain any extra
time, their grounds were crowded wnth them, labouring for their own
benefit. They cannot, therefore, be said to be an indolent race, or
incapable of being actuated by the motives by which labour is generally
prompted. His own experience assured him of the contrary. He ad-
mitted that the propensity of the Negro, as of all men in warm climates,
was to indolence ; but, whenever the hope of pecuniary advantage could
be brought to bear on this indolence, it was powerfully counteracted.
He was well acquainted with the inhabitants of Scotland, and he had
never knov/n an intelligent and well-instructed Scotchman who would
work hard without an inducement ; but, for the same motive of personal
advantage, the Negro might most decidedly be induced to work to an
immense extent. Having tried the experiment of voluntary labour for
wages in his own garden, the man who most frequently applied for
employment was the most idle and worthless man on the estate. The
steady Negroes were far less willing to work in his garden, having
large and well cultivated grounds of their own 5 while this fellow had
neglected his ground and had therefore no temptation to go to it, and
was glad therefore to be employed in the garden, or he would collect a
little fruit, or procure some billets of wood, and carry them to Kingston
market, converting them into cash. This man, more frequently than
any other, came to work in the garden the whole day till four o'clock,
and he then took his '2s. 1 \d. of hire and proceeded to Kingston to con-
vert the money into comforts ; while the pther Negroes were unwilling to

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 333

do so, it being more profitable to go to their own grounds — thus decided-
ly showing their judgment in discriminating as to the kind of labour
that would reward them best and selecting that. In fact the Negroes are
far from being the rude uncultivated barbarians they are sometimes
represented to be. The estimate in this country of their character is a
great deal too low. He himself had no notion of it till he was called to
manage those estates ; and he had been ten years in the island and was
still in great ignorance of the agricultural labourers of Jamaica ; and
he then found that far too low an opinion had been formed (and this he
declared to many in Jamaica) of their state of civilization. The Negroes
who worked in his garden worked diligently, because he discharged
them if they did not. The^idle man, who was the chief labourer, was well
watched by the gardener, and if slothful was sent away. The fear of
this operated to produce application as the fear of the whip did in the
field. Working in his garden was however less hard than digging cane
holes (p. 25, 26, 27).

Mr. Taylor was here asked a very important question : " How many
hours a day, upon the average, is a slave engaged in the work of his
master ?" He was unable to answer this question with any precision,
having never acted in the lower grades of plantership, either as book-
keeper or overseer.* But though Mr. Taylor cannot specify the exact

* As Mr. Taylor could not trust to his recollection to answer this question, it
may be expedient at once to refer to the infallible authority, not of an obsolete
statute, but the latest slave law on this subject, namely, the Act of 19th February,
1831, clause 22 : — " And be it further enacted that every field slave on any
plantation or settlement shall, on work days, be allowed half an hour for break-
fast, and two hours for dinner ; and that no slave shall be compelled to any
manner oi field work upon the plantation before the hour oi five in the morning,
or after the hour of seven at night, except during the time of crop, under the
penalty not exceeding fifty pounds, to be recovered against the overseer or other
person having the charge of such slaves."

The overseer, therefore, is by this, the only existing law on the subject, em-
powered to compel the labour of the slaves in the field, whether they be men,
women, or children, on all work days, from five in the morning till seven in the
evening, being fourteen solid hours, with intervals of two hours and a half, leav-
ing the actual field labour to which the slaves, male and female, are compella-
ble to submit, at the immoderate amount of eleven hours and a half on each
work day throughout the year. But then crop time, which lasts from four to six
months in the year, is exempted even from this limitation ; and there is no extent
of exaction short of absolute cruelty, and not bounded by the physical powers
of the human animal, which this apparently slight and parenthetic provision
may not vindicate. This enactment, too, is not an act of inconsideration on the
part of the Jamaica legislature. It stands thus in every successive version
of it from 1788 downwards. It stood in their disallowed act of 1826 in
precisely the same words, and was thus commented upon by Mr. Huskisson in
his Despatch of the 22nd September, 1827 : — " The provisions for the prevention
of excessive labour contemplate the working of the slaves for eleven hours and a
half daily out of crop, and place no limit on the continuance of the work during
crop time. Considering the climate in which the labour is to be performed, and
that after the work of the field there will yet remain many offices to be done not
falling within the proper meaning of the term ' labour' (he should have said
field labour), I should fear that the exertions of the slaves, if exacted up to

334 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

but varying duration of the slaves' labour for his master, upon one fact
involved in it he speaks without any doubt or hesitation, and that is,
that the women are employed the same number of hours with the men,
except women pregnant, or having children at the breast. Their labour,
also, is almost entirely of the same description as that of the men.
They cannot undertake the management of cattle, or the duty of watch-
ing all night out of crop ; but they dig cane-holes with the men, and
in gangs with them ; and they are exposed to the same degree of labour.
The question aptly follows, " Does the population of Jamaica increase
or decrease ?" The reply is — it decreases ; and this decrease Mr.
Taylor states is considered in Jamaica to arise from sugar cultivation,
especially the night work of crop, and the cane-hole digging. The
free blacks and people of colour, on the other hand, increase. The
maroons, he knew from the returns in the Jamaica Almanac, increased
largely, and they derive their whole subsistence from their own exertions.
The habits of the free people as to labour he was not able to describe
particularly ; few of them, from the jealousy and ill-will of managers
and overseers, have hitherto been allowed to settle on or near estates. A
free village near an estate indeed is viewed as a great evil. Being asked
to account for the increase of the free, while the slaves decrease, Mr.

the limits allowed by law, would be scarcely consistent with the health of the
labourer." Mr. Huskisson might well say so, as the murderous tendency of
the whole system of slave labour in Jamaica abundantly testifies, by the debility
and death of its victims, by the arrest of the prolific powers of the female slaves,
and by the frightful waste of the whole slave population.

Now, in the insolent reply of the Assembly to Mr. Huskisson's Despatch, drawn
up by the very Mr. Barrett who is now a delegate from Jamaica to uphold this cruel
code, as it is given in the papers printed by command in 1828, Mr. Barrett
seems at some loss to parry or evade the above conclusive observations of the Secre-
tary of State. His reply is a rare example of shuffling dexterity. It is as follows : —
" Mr. Huskisson fears that the exertions of the slaves, if exacted up to the limits
allowed by the disallowed law, would be scarcely consistent with a due regard to the
health of the labourer. Negroes do not exert themselves at work like Europeans.
They seldom fatigue themselves, and it is common for them to travel many miles
or to dance the entire night after the longest day's labour. It is believed by the
House of Assembly that labourers work much harder and longer in Great
Britain, and are rewarded with a smaller share of the necessaries and comforts
of existence."

The daring insolence, the unblushing falsehood, and the unfeeling levity of such
a statement, on so grave a subject, and with a wasting population around
them, is quite characteristic of the Jamaica Assembly. Yet Mr. Huskisson
did not do justice to the cause he advocated. He was not aware of half the ex-
actions to which, under the shelter of this artfully framed and most insidious
enactment, the slave might be subjected. There is no limitation but to work in
the field, none to grass collecting for the cattle after the work of the field is over,
none to the onerous duties of the slaves, male and female, in their household
menage; viz. all the cooking required, the firing and water wan ted for household
purposes and cleanliness for them and their families ; — all are left to fall on the
slaves after their work is over, and they have been broiling in a tropical sun for
eleven hours and a half in the field, and under the lash. Can we wonder at the
dreadful waste of human life in Jamaica?

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 335

Taylor said he accounted for it partly by cane-hole digging and night
work, partly by abortions caused by flogging pregnant women, before the
pregnancy is apparent. Many children are thus destroyed in the
womb. Some of the medical men to whom he spoke admitted that this
evil prevailed to a certain extent. He believed that there was a waste
or rather prevention of life from this cause (it was admitted generally
in conversation) as well as from the severity and duration of the labour
imposed on the women in common Avith the men, such as cane-hole
digging, and night work (pp. 27, 28).

Mr. Taylor being again questioned as to the slave's capacity, if ma-
numitted, to m.aintain himself and his family in comfort, he replied that
he would be neither incapable nor unwilling. Let him be moved by
the fear of want, or excited by the hope of advantage, and he will
exert himself as certainly and effectively as the labourers of Europe.
It would at the same time be unfair, in his present enslaved state, to re-
quire that he should be placed in comparison with the free Scotchman ;
yet he believed that he would be always alive to the prospect of pe-
cuniary advantage whenever it was palpably exhibited to him, and, with
that before him, he would work if free. Emancipated slaves do not
become vagrants, in any legitimate sense of the term. They are much
employed as hucksters, an occupation for which the peculiar state of
Jamaica offers great advantages. There are in that island scarcely any
inland villages with shops, as in England ; but the wants of the slaves
in distant parishes are supplied by hucksters, which emancipated slaves
are fond of becoming. A strict watch, however, is kept over such
stragglers, whether they be coloured, or black, or white persons. The
slaves, if emancipated, would only think of removing from their home
to better their condition ; but otherwise they would cling, if allowed to
do so, to their respective villages, to their houses and grounds, their
wives and children. With respect to the habits of the free people of
colour, little comparatively is known by the whites. Indeed the distinc-
tions between white, and black, and brown, and bond and free, raise
barriers to communication which widely separate them from each other.
This is an almost necessary, but most unhappy incident of a slave
state. — Certainly the desire for freedom does not arise from the slave's
connecting it with an exemption from labour ; for they see under their
own eyes many who had been slaves labouring hard for their support.
Even an old Negro on an estate, when he ceases to labour for his mas-
ter, does not cease to labour for himself. There was one on the estate of
Salt Savannah, who, though allowed to "sit down and to be exempt
from plantation labour, was most industrious and hard-working for
himself" (p. 28,29).

Mr. Taylor, being further questioned as to the danger of disturbance
among the slaves in Jamaica, replied to this effect : — Jamaica is now
in a state of disturbance ; but he could not answer for the future, so
ignorantmay an individual in Jamaica be of the state and feelings of the
society around him. Had he been asked in January last, or on the very
day before the news of the insurrection arrived, he would have denied

336 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

all probability of riot or insurrection ; and in no parish should he have
less expected it, with the exception of Kingston and Spanish Town,
than in St. James. The actual transactions would have falsified all his
convictions, and convinced him that, though living in the very centre
of the slaves, with hundreds of them at the very door, nothing was
known of them, or of what they felt or designed. This is a peculiar
feature of a slave community. Slavery separates the different classes
from each other. The military executions and horrors may for the pre-
sent have quelled the spirit of insubordination ; but, when that terror has
worn away, it can hardly be doubted, from the vast increase of lettered
knowledge among the slaves, which there is no controlling, that, without
an early emancipation, they will break out again, and you will not be able
to put them down. They will be more methodical and successful. Men
cannot be expected to be quiet who read newspapers on both sides of
such a question. The great error in Jamaica is madly fancying that the
slaves of 1830 are the slaves of 1810. Legislation is at least half a
century behind the state of the people. Whether when made free they
will be turbulent or peaceable will depend wholly on the mode of
doing it. If put in a situation to feel the influence of the motives which
make us all work, they will work, if you only establish a good govern-
ment in that country. — But it is asked, if the slave in certain situations
possesses the advantages you have stated, why should you think
freedom preferable to slavery? It is preferable on these grounds, and in
this view of the subject the slaves almost universally concur. — What-
ever advantages a slave may have, the evils accompanying slavery are
such as every man would get rid of if he could. Let the comfort even
of a Negro in Vere, the most comfortable in the island, be doubled, yet
he would not remain in that state, if he could get rid of it without abso-
lutely being turned adrift. Better to be the poorest labourer in Eng-
land than the richest slave in Jamaica. Suppose him in the best cir-
cumstances, and with the best master, he cannot call Sunday his own.
He may see his wife indecently stripped and flogged at shell blow. He
may see his adult daughter put in the same situation. There is no law
to prevent this, and it is done over and over again. No degree of com-
forts, even their greatest abundance, could be accepted on such terms
(p. 29, 30).

The remainder of Mr. Taylor's evidence, extending through nearly
34 folio pages, consists chiefly of a close and eagerly pursued cross-
examination, conducted, as it would appear, by Mr. Burge, who alone
of the committee could have been competent to the task. Close and
able as it was, it did not shake any one material position occupied by
Mr, Taylor; on the contrary it has greatly strengthened them. It
would be a mere waste of time and labour to repeat, under this new
form, the^re-assertion of the principles we have already abstracted.
We shall therefore only glean what we find new and striking in this
truly searching examination.

Mr, Taylor, during the thirteen years he had resided in Jamaica, be^-
tween 1816 and 1831, had had abundant opportunities of knowing

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taylor. 337

something of the state and character of the slave population. During
the ten years he resided in Kingston as a merchant, he visited Her-
mitage estate, in St. George, belonging to his partner Mr. Simpson,
three or four times a year, having upon it 160 Negroes, During six
months of 18 16 he visited many estates in Trelawney, with his uncle Mr.
Cunningham, who was both a proprietor and an attorney. He had also
been a good deal in Manchester and St. Elizabeth. — The time allowed
the slaves by law to raise their food, he was convinced, was wholly
inadequate. The land in general was ample, but the time, without en-
croaching largely on the rest of Sunday, very scanty, it being only his
own time, and not his master's, which he could apply to that purpose
(p. 34). The labour required to keep yams, and cocoes or eddoes, free
from weeds, is very considerable. The time required by a plantain
walk, when once established, was certainly not great ;* but still, to
secure sufficient food for the slave, far more time is absolutely required
(p. 35, ques. 342). At present the slave is almost wholly debarred from
the religious use of two Sundays in three, and from attending the Sun-
day schools on those days. — The wealth found among slaves is princi-
pally among mechanics (ques. 308, p. 36) ; but he knows no parish
where provisions are deficient (ques. 384, p. 37). As to the hours of
labour, the whip is cracked generally between four and five in the
morning. In general they go out as soon as they can see (ques. 392,
p. 38). Half an hour is usually allowed for breakfast, and an hour and
a half for dinner (ques. 396, p. 38). In duration their day's labour is
thus raised to twelve hours. In most estates cane-hole digging to a
considerable extent is indispensable ; on very fertile lands it is much
less called for (ques. 415, &c., p. 39). Cane-holing was the chief work
in Clarendon, from the middle of August to the middle of November,
with occasional intermissions of lighter work, as the strength of the
Negroes would permit (ques. 462, p. 39). The plough and jobbing
gangs are in use on many plantations, with a view of sparing the Ne-
groes (p. 40). On estates not strongly handed, during crop, the Negroes
work day and night for about 18 hours out of the 24, If the estates are
strongly handed, this labour is lessened, but in none is the loss of sleep
less than two nights a weekf (p. 41). Mr. Taylor is asked whether the
mortality is as great among the children of the free as among the child-

* But, if a hurricane comes, plantain walks are swept away, and, if the Negro
has no other food to rely upon, he is reduced to a state of absolute famine. The
planter who permits his slaves to rely on the plantain exposes them to destruc-
tion of the same kind which, in 1789, swept away so many thousands by the
famine caused by the miserable penuriousness of the planters of that day in the
allotment of time to their slaves.

f An intelligent person, who kept spell as a book-keeper for four years in Ja-
maica, is ready to testify, if called upon, to the uniform practice, in his time,
to divide into two spells that part of the first and second gangs not occupied as
coopers, in making casks, or as waggoners, or mule-drivers.

The following is a sketch of the working of those two spells, which we will
call A and B, a white book-keeper being allowed to each, who had the same
length of night duty as the slaves : —

2 Y

338 Rejiort of a Committee of tJie House of Cofnmons

ren of slaves (ques. 496, p. 44), but he cannot answer the question.* —
No attempt was made to instruct and civilise the maroons till 1 829, when
Mr. Taylor was authorised by the Church Missionary Society to erect
schools for them in Accomping Town. Prior to that they had been
left in a state of utter ignorance and barbarism ; but from that date he
observed a rapid change among them (ques. 537, page 48). — Mr. Tay-
lor affirms the ample sufficiency of his experience to justify the asser-
tions he has made respecting the Negro character and the conduct
of the slave population. His experience was as large as that of most
others who had been in that island (ques. 562, p. 49). His means of
acquiring a knowledge of lettered instruction among the Negroes were
peculiar, and he pronounced their advance, as compared with 18 16, to be
immense (ques. 581, p. 51); meaning by lettered instruction the know-
ledge of reading. They acquire it in Sunday schools, which are chiefly
attended by the adult slaves, and tkei/ carry it home and spread it dili-
gently. The knowledge of reading was not general, but it was spreading
rapidljT^. In these schools are many children, but the chief part is
composed of adults, and this though they could only attend one Sun-

On Sunday, at 6 p.m., the spell A went to the works and put the mill about,
remaining there till midnight, when it went to rest as soon as relieved by spell
B. At day-dawn, on Monday, spell A went to the field, and continued cutting
canes tliere for the mill till noon. At noon it resumed its place at the works,
and continued there till midnight on Monday, when it took rest till day-dawn on
Tuesday, and was then again in the field cutting canes till noon, and thus it pro-
ceeded on each succeeding day of the week, except that on Saturday it did not
always retire at midnight, but remained sometimes to two or three on Sunday
morning, till all the cane juice was boiled oflT. During the same week, the spell
B came on duty at the works at midnight on Sunday night, and continued there
till noon on Monday, when it went home ; but at 2 p. m. it was again in the
field, cutting canes for the mill from that time until dusk, when it went home to
rest, till called up again at midnight to relieve spell A. And so the work pro-
ceeded the whole vi^eek, only that at midnight on Saturday there was no call of
spell B, however late might be the boiling.

The succeeding week, the spells were changed, so that the spell B began work
on the Sunday evening at 6 p. m., and so had the very same tale and hours of
labour, both at the works and in the field, which the spell A had had tlie week
before, and A the same as B had had. Thus each spell during every 24 hours was
12 hours at the works and six hours in the field, the whole of their sleep being
taken from the six hours which then alone remained to them. And the same
must of absolute necessity be the case still, if the manufacture of sugar be con-
tinuously carried on, on estates not having more than from 200 to 250 Negroes,
embracing a large majority of sugar estates. Is not this toil dreadful, and most
wearing and exhausting? and it affects the women still more than the men. Can
women, by any possibility, breed under such circumstances ? It is altogether
impossible.

* But can the slightest doubt rest upon this matter when the returns officially
sent from the West Indies are examined ? The increase among the maroons of
Jamaica is nearly 2| per cent, per annum, while the decrease on the sugar estates
is from 1 to 2 per cent, or more. The free black and coloured people of Deme-
rara, Berbice, and the Mauritius, increase at the rate of nearly 3 per cent, per
annum. — IIow terrible is the waste of slave life as compared with this increase !

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Taijlor. 339

day in three. These schools are numerous in St. Thomas in the East,
in St. George^s, at BufF Bay, at Annotta Bay, at Falmouth, at Monte-
go Bay, at Lucea, at Savannah-la-mar, and in St. Elizabeth, where the
clergy, the dissenting missionaries, the Moravians, and several private
families are particularly active ; and the recipients of such instruction
are themselves, in their turn, the active instruments of teaching others.
It thus spreads rapidly. Many adults are able to read Anti-Slavery publi-
cations, not from England, but published in the island : some subscribe for
them and take them in. The proprietors and land-owners know little
of all this (p. 51 and 52). The Watchman and Christian Record are
unsafe reading for the slaves in Jamaica. As for the Anti-Slavery
Reporter, it was little known in Jamaica, and he did not believe it was
read there (p. 53). — ^The insurrection Mr. Taylor thought had arisen
chiefly from the rapid advance of knowledge among the slaves ; partly
from the debates in the Assembly, as to the free people of colour;
partly from a desire and expectation of freedom, excited by the dis-
cussions between the colonial legislature and the government at
home ; and partly from the excited and divided state of the press*
(p. 53). — The handsome furniture found in the houses of Negroes
were exceptions ; such things were almost entirely in the houses
of mechanics, but slaves, generally, have a strong desire to possess better
clothing and furniture (p. 55). — The Negroes always put on sandals
when they walk a great distance, (ib.) The Negro house is a low-
roofed cottage of three apartments ; the centre is the eating apartment.
The parents occupy one end and sleep there, and the children sleep in
the centre apartment. The other end is for their property. Many houses
have only two apartments, one for living in, and one for sleeping.
They have rude bedsteads of timber nailed together. Some have mat-
tresses stuffed with leaves, and some bed-clothes and sheets (p. 55).
Mr. Taylor could affirm that those slaves who were constant at church
were those most desirous to receive instruction.

Mr. Taylor is of opinion that on plantations, generally, it is in the
power of the manager to inflict great cruelty on the slaves, without
their being able to obtain redress ; and that, within the limit of the law,
most appalling cruelty may be inflicted, which cannot be punished
(p. 5Q). The Assembly of Jamaica voted large sums for the pro-slavery
publications of Macqueen, Bridges, and Barclay ; and the planters
support the Jamaica Courant (p. 56). With the Negroes, the flogging of
women operates against marriage. They will not marry, because they
cannot endure to have their wedded wives flogged (p. 57).— It is in-
disputable that one part of the Jamaica clergy promotes religious
instruction among the Negroes to the utmost, and that another part
does not (ques. 670, p. 57). The former exert themselves in every

' * Mr. Taylor has entirely omitted to notice the parochial restrictions of Ja-
maica in August, September, and October, 1831 ; the appointment of delegates
to England; and Mr. Beaumont's bill for abolishing female flogging, and facili-
tating manumissions by compelling masters to grant them at a fair appraise-
ment.

340 Report of a Committee of the House of Comynons

possible way to instruct the Negroes, conceiving it their bounden duty
to their flock to teach them to read the Scriptures, and to put the
Scriptures into their hands, whether the masters like it or not. The
other party will do nothing without permission of the owner (ques.
684, p. 58). There are not sufficient magistrates in Jamaica at pre-
sent to serve as substitutes for the master in enforcing discipline (ques.
681, p. 58).— Mr. Taylor thinks that no consideration would induce
an emancipated slave to submit to the degradation of joining a Negro
gang to work in the field with a driver behind him ; but his refusal to
do this, especially as he can procure more profitable employment, is
only a proof of his good sense (p. 63).

A paper was produced which Mr. Taylor acknowledged to be his,
and in which he had embodied, for the information of a friend, his
general views on the subject of emancipation ; and he added that
they were still his views, and the result of much deliberation and re-
flection. It was as follows : —

" First let emancipation, and strict police arrangements, be contem-
poraneous,— Ample materials would be found for a police corps in the
coloured class, whose services could be had at a low rate of charge. —
Avoid paying the emancipated Negroes by means of allotments of land,
as those would detach them from regular daily labour ; but pay them
in money. — At first there would be difficulties, but gradually the
equitable price of labour would be ascertained, and act as the producer
of regular labour. — A stipendiary magistracy would be necessary, be-
cause the peculiar prejudices of the present magistracy generally unfit
them for the office. — ^The island would have to be divided into districts,
each possessing a certain portion of the constabulary force, with a
stipendiary magistrate, and a house of correction or other penitentiary.
Were the island thus divided, and the police and magistrates properly
organized, I firmly believe that emancipation might take place with
perfect security. — Of course there would be difficulties, obstacles, and
disappointments, in carrying into effect the detail of the system of
emancipation ; but if Government would address themselves actually to
the work, telling the planters on the one hand that such is their deter-
mination, and the Negroes on the other that while they aim at institut-
ing equal laws, and securing them their civil and religious liberty, they
by no means design that idleness should be at their option, — I am con-
vinced that the result would be as beneficial, in a pecuniary way, to
the planter, as it would be elevating and humanizing morally to the
present degraded slave. The present system is incurable ; it will not
modify : it mu^t be utterly destroyed. My experience, as a planter,
assures me that to attempt to ingraft religion and humanity upon
slavery, with the hope of profitable results, is a vain and fruitless en-
deavour. A religious man is a most unfit person to manage a slave
estate. The fact is, cruelty is the main spring of the present system.
As long as slavery exists, and the whip is the compeller of labour, it is
folly to talk of humanity. Legitimate motives are taken away, and
coercion becomes the spring of industry; and in proportion to the ap-

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Barry. 341

plication of this, that is, coercion, is the effect on labour. The Negro
character has been much underrated, even, I think, by the Negro's friends.
When justice is done to him, even in his present degraded circumstances,
he shows a sagacity and shrewdness, and a disposition to a regular
social life, which emphatically prove that he only requires freedom
secured to him by law to make him a useful, and, in his situation, an
honourable member of the human family." Mr. Taylor added that he
firmly believed all that he had stated in this paper to be true. It had
been privately written, and he never expected to see it again, but he
perfectly agreed now in every sentiment it contained.

Such is the evidence of Mr. William Taylor, and certainly more im-
portant evidence has never been laid before the public on this subject.
It will commend itself to every reader by its calmness, consistency, and
truth, by its cautious and discriminating character, and by the straight-
forwardness with which he states, without regard to the impression
they may produce. It bears all the marks of a thoroughly honest
evidence.

II. The next witness is the Rev. John Barry, a Wesleyan Missionary.
When he first went to the island, and for some time after, he found the
work of education in a backward and ineflficient state. The children
attended only on Sundays at the chapel. They were all regularly at
work during the week in St. Thomas in the Vale, where he then was, and
no fit teachers were procurable. Now, however, great numbers of child-
ren, and latterly of adults, have learnt to read. The Wesleyans have no
schools on any plantations, nor on any day but Sunday, and at their
chapels, except in Kingston. The Negroes in St. Thomas in the Vale
derived their subsistence from the provision grounds allotted by the
master, and cultivated by themselves. Besides provisions, some of
them reared pigs and poultry. The yearly allowance of clothing was
two suits of Osnaburg, a common hat or cap, and a coarse rug coat, for
bad weather; but many were clad in better clothes, procured by the
sale of their surplus provisions. The whole of the 26 week days
allowed by law, and any spare time they had and the Sundays, were
given to the culture of provisions, or to marketing. They generally
laboured in their grounds on Sundays, except when they went to
market, and which m.arket, whether Spanish Town or Kingston, was 20
miles distant from the plantations near which he lived. This use of most
Sundays was invariably and decidedly necessary, though they were very
industrious in employing what time they had in raising food and
articles for sale. He had paid attention to their industrious habits, and
had not the least doubt they would labour willingly for hire if free. They
did notbecome less industrious by having acquired some little property.
He had a servant of his own who had been a slave, but had obtained
his freedom ; and, though he received a liberal weekly pay for his ser-
vices, he requested to be allowed to devote his hours after 8 or 9 o'clock
to his own purposes, and has been known almost constantly to work
till midnight, or even two in the morning, in manufacturing baskets to

342 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

sell, and increase his property and comforts. The Negroes employ
themselves much, besides cultivating their grounds, in manufacturing
ornamental baskets, making coarse straw hats and earthen utensils,
and a variety of little articles, and sometimes in cutting grass, all which
they sell. This is done to a great extent near towns. The slaves sell
their provisions and other things in the public markets, as is done in
England. They are very shrewd indeed in their bargains — as shrewd as
any white man. They well understand the value of money. They
often go as far as 25 and 26 miles to market, and sometimes as far as
35. Their plan is to prepare their loads on that Saturday which is their
own, and to travel with it all Saturday night to be in time for the Sun-
day market ; so that the violation of the Sabbath is unavoidable, for it
necessarily requires the whole of the day when they go to market, to
vend their goods and return home (p. 64 — 68).

The Negroes, Mr. Barry thinks, are remarkable for the social and domes-
tic affections. He never knew more dutiful and obedient children. They
are exceedingly attached to their parents, and will do all in their power
to promote their comfort. The greatest offence that can be given to a
Negro is to speak disrespectfully of his parents. At the same time, in
St. Thomas in the Vale, they are generally in a state of sad demora-
lization. Great improvement, however, has followed religious instruc-
tion. On Mount Concord, near the missionary station, there were 130
Negroes. The adults were about 70. The overseer of that plantation
called upon Mr. Barry one day and said, " Mr. Barry, the Negroes on
this property perfectly astonish me. They are the most industrious,
and the most intelligent, and the best Negroes I have ever seen in this
island. I have just left the Port Royal mountains, and such was the
state of the Negroes there that I was afraid to eat my food, lest I should
be poisoned, and 1 always considered my life in danger." Mr. Barry
replied, " I am glad to hear you bear that testimony, Mr. Jordan ; for
almost all of these people are members of our society." It is true that,
owing to some peculiarities in the state of the Negroes, they had not
sufficiently correct notions as to petty thefts and the obligations of
truth and purity ; but, when brought under the influence of religion,
those evils were almost invariably corrected. Had the slave population,
generally, been as well instructed as the 10,000 or 12,000 Negroes be-
longing to the Wesleyan establishments, they might be considered as
on a par, in point of morality, with ordinary persons. In the late in-
surrection not a single member of the society was found implicated :
and there were only two cases even of suspicion. The Governor him-
self stated as much to Mr. Barry ; and Major-General Yates said that,
after the most minute irivestigation, it did not appear that a single
Wesleyan had taken part in it. Since Mr. Barry had quitted the
island, a few months since, he had heard rumours that three or four
had been detected, but on no good authority (p. 68).

Mr. Barry was decidedly of opinion that, if emancipation took place
under prudent precautions, there would be an infinitely greater oppor-
tunity of communicating religious instruction, and a more rapid ad-
vancement in morality and civilization. He called once, in travelling

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Barry. 343

through St. Mary's, on a Mr. Clarke, the possessor of about forty slaves
who had been receiving instruction for two or three years. The change,
he said, was remarkable ; he no longer employed a driver, and seldom
visited his slaves while at work. Previously to their becoming religious,
he had employed two drivers, and .constantly visited the slaves himself.
Now he got infinitely more work from those very slaves than he could
get by his own care, and that of his drivers ; and this he attributed to
the influence of religion. Religious slaves, however, are not exempted
in general, under the present system, from the infliction of punishment.
If they work under drivers, as is the common case, they will share in
it, however attentive they may be to their duties. If emancipated, he
believes, they would do more work than now (p. 69).

Many plantations have no religious instruction at all. St. Mary's had
a population of 25,000 slaves: when first he visited it, in 1825, the
only places of worship were the parish church at Port Maria and an-
other small church that only held 200 people, both very distant from
the dwellings of the great majority of the slaves. This is a fair pic-
ture of the provision of places of worship generally throughout
the island. In some parishes the advantages are greater, but in no
due proportion to the number of slaves. The aggregate number of slaves
even partially under religious instruction, by all the religious bodies,
did not exceed 50,000, being only a seventh of the whole. The pro-
portion of the free black and coloured inhabitants who attend reli-
gious instruction is much larger. A great degree of immorality, how-
ever, prevails among both slave and free, the constitution of society in
Jamaica tending much to general demoralization, and more generailly
among the whites than the other classes. It prevails to a very great extent
indeed ; and among the whites of all grades it is nearly universal. This
general profligacy pervading all ranks, whether slave or free, has had
its origin in slavery, and especially in the master's unlimited power over
the body of his female slave. It is true he has not the same power over the
Jhee women ; but the example and influence of the whites are so corrupting
that the mothers of free females generally prefer seeing their daughters
the concubines of white men than the wives of men of their own colour.
Emancipation would tend greatly to improve this state of things. Re-
ligious and moral improvement would then necessarily advance ; and,
under the influence of religion, the present loose habits would be aban-
doned. In the Wesleyan Societies in Jamaica there are hundreds of
fine young women who will labour incessantly rather than submit to
such a state of degradation. In some instances women have had the
strongest inducements held out to return to their former keepers, which
they have almost uniformly refused. The discredit which still attaches
to white men who marry Vv'omen of colour is great, notwithstanding
the new rights and privileges conferred on that class. Such marriages
cause an almost entire exclusion from white society. The emancipa-
tion of the slaves would tend to obviate this evil (p. 70 aiid 71).

The free coloured and blacks maintain themselves by their own in-
dustry in a great variety of ways ; they work as carpenters, smiths.

344 Report of the Committee of a House of Commons

masons, coopers, wood cutters, cabinet makers, watch makers, and
at all other trades carried on by whites. Many of them who have
themselves been slaves are employed in the very first works in the
island. Numbers of them are domestic servants, and a great many
cultivate lands of their own, and sell the produce. They never work
in the field of plantations : indeed their services are never asked for
there, and they have constant work otherwise ; and at all events in
cultivating land of their own, which they purchase. The present sys-
tem of labour excludes them from plantation work in the field. A
planter would not willingly admit free persons to work with his slaves,
and the free persons would feel it a deep degradation to work with a gang
of slaves in the field : extreme necessity alone could drive them to it.
Land may be had, but not always in convenient situations. Mr. Barry
himself paid 11. currency, or 51. sterling, for an acre of very good grass
land, which he wanted for his own use. There are immense tracts of
uncultivated land both in the plains and on the mountains, partly be-
longing to the crown, and partly to individuals (p. 72).
Mr. Barry professes to be well acquainted with the habits of the free blacks
and people of colour. They have certainly greatly improved in informa-
tion, intelligence, and wealth, during his residence in the island. Some
of the best educated men he has known in Jamaica are people of co-
lour, and they promote education among the young. Being allied by
blood and marriage with the slaves, they communicate with them to a
great extent, and thus the slaves acquire much general knowledge.—
There is scarcely a transaction which takes place even in England with
which they are not acquainted. They take a deep interest in what
relates to emancipation. When in the last session Mr. Beau-
mont brought in his bill for compulsory manumission, the greatest
possible excitement existed among the slaves, and their expressions of
joy were almost unbounded ; and the great mass not only of the slaves,
but of the free black and coloured classes, were eager for the measure.
He knev/ slaves that were head men and tradesmen on estates, who were
able to purchase their freedom, and desirous of obtaining it, but could
not obtain it. He had known instances of aged and infirm slaves who
did not desire to be free ; but he never knew an instance of a vigorous
Negro who did not desire it. It is very common for emancipated
slaves to pay large sums for the redemption of their wives and child-
ren : the desire to do so is universally very strong, and very exorbi-
tant prices are often paid for them (p. 73).

When Mr. Barry first went to Jamaica, from what he had heard, he
was led to think that emancipation could not be effected without dan-
ger. But now he was of a contrary opinion. He was now convinced,
by a more close observation of the Negro character, that, with proper
regulations, it might be effected without any danger; and that such is
their willingness to labour at their own hours, whether field slaves or
mechanics, that no apprehension need be entertained of the result. —
The cause of religion and morality would be most essentially promoted
by it. Under the present system the slaves are generally precluded,
for weeks together, from attending places of religious worship and in-

0)1 the Extinction of Slavery .—Evidence of the Rev. J. Barry. 345

struction. Any system of police, however severe, would be preferable
to the evils of slavery. And not only would the free people, generally,
be perfectly competent to diseharg-e police duties, but thousands of the
slaves themselves, if emancipated, might safely be put into acorpsof that
description. They would keep order themselves, and aid in keeping
others in order. The present magistracy, however, would be inadequate,
and there ought to be stipendiary magistrates to superintend the whole.
The feeling of freedom has got so firm a hold of the slaves now that
they will never be satisfied till theyrattain it, and even its delay will be
attended with considerable danger. During the late insurrection, those
who were judicially executed, with very few exceptions, died glorying
in their death, and stating that, had they twenty lives, they would
sacrifice them all rather than return to slavery. No mere amelioration
of their condition will ever reconcile the Negroes again to slavery.
Religious instruction tends indeed to restrain turbulence and outrage,
but it never can repress the desire of freedom (p. 74, 75).

The Negroes are generally a shrewd and intelligent people. Many
possess strong intellectual powers. They are strongly attached to their
homes. They are grateful to those who treat them kindly. Taking all
their circumstances into account, they are much the same as other men.
Plantation field slaves have little opportunity of working for hire.
Plantation mechanics will work assiduously after hours, as long as they
can see, and often by candle-light. It cannot be doubted, however,
that in case of emancipation all would work, for fair wages, at planta-
tion or any other work. They dislike sugar planting more than any other
work ; but, for a proper remuneration, they will work even on sugar pro-
perties. They know the value of money, and they will labour for it
(p. 76).

Mr. Barry did not think that the present means of education and
divine worship were at all sufficient for the slave population. Difficul-
ties, too, are thrown in the way by masters. One Sunday, in St.
Thomas in the Vale, a woman came into the chapel with a wooden tray
on her head, filled with dirty clothes, Mr, Barry felt inclined to re-
prove her for the indecorum, but the steward told him she was not to
blame, as what she had done was to elude the opposition of her owner.
His opposition to religion was so strong that his Negroes were obliged
to leave the estate with their best clothes put into the tray, and their
working dress on, that he might be led to suppose they were going to
their grounds or to market ; but when they came near chapel they put
on their best clothes, and put their dirty ones into the tray, and all
this was done to elude the opposition to their attending religious wor-
ship. But the grand hindrance is the necessary attention that must be
paid to their provision grounds, and the impossibility of going to mar-
ket if they attend chapel. They cannot attend any school but a
Sunday school — their master's interest stands in the way : and from
Sunday schools they are frequently altogether debarred. Even the
children, from the age of five to ten, are constantly employed in gangs
under a driveress, to perform various works on the estate. Mr. Wild-

2 7.

34() Report of a Committee of the Houce of Commons

man, and Mr. S. M. Barrett, are the only planters he knew to pay any
great attention to the religious instruction of the slaves, both children
and adults. Mr. Nicholas Palmer's wishes on that point were wholly
frustrated by his attorney. Mr. Palmer sent out as a catechist a Mr.
Stockman and his wife, from Bristol, to his estate in St. Dorothy's.
But, when Mr. Stockman arrived, Mr. Bailey, the attorney, would not
permit him to go on the estate, and, tho"ugh informed of Mr. Palmer's
wishes, would neither make him any allowance nor suffer him to per-
form his duties. The consequence was that Mr. Stockman, having
opened a school at Old Harbour, in a very hot and iiiconvenient house,
fever ensued, of which he died ; and Mr. Palmer paid the expenses of
his widow's return to Bristol. He did not knowof any specific opposi-
tion to Mr.Wildman's plans of education, but he became very unpopular
in consequence of them (p. 77).

Mr. Barry could not tell, from his ©wn observation, whether the field
slaves worked harder on the plantation, or for their own profit on their
grounds ; but he had seen carpenters working as hard for their own
profit as it was possible for men to do. There is, however, a great
diificulty in entering a plantation to obtain information as to the state
of the slaves. Attorneys and overseers never like it (p. 77, ques. 949).

He had known instances, during the late insurrection, of slaves who
had shown attachment to their masters or managers, and had defended
their property. One man in particular, James Muir, had defended his
master's property to the last; and, when at length compelled to abandon
the house to the insurgents, he secured the most valuable of his master's
effects and carried them to Montego Bay, v/here he resided. This man
was one of the principal slave members of the Wesleyan Society
(ques. 950, p. 78).

Mr. Barry explained the mode by which members were admitted into
that Society. There are subordinate leaders in the Society. If any of
these should be applied to by an individual for admission, he states the
fact to the missionary, who examines particularly whether, if a slave,
his conduct as far as known is irreproachable, and whether he has been
faithful to his master. If the examination be satisfactory, he is admitted
for two or three months on trial. If, at the end of this probation, the
leader can still recommend him for moral conduct, a ticket is then given
him which recognizes him as a member. At the weekly meeting of the
leaders the missionary further enquires of each as to the moral conduct
of every member of his class during the week, and if a slave has been
guilty of any act of immorality or dishonesty, or of running away, the
slave is immediately called up and examined, and, if proved to be
guilty, is expelled. This course is invariably pursued. He does not,
however, necessarily become a leader : that requires higher qualifica-
tions. In fact, there are not above five slave leaders in the island. The
office of a leader requires that he should undertake the moral and re-
ligious instruction of a certain number of members ; and, before any such
appointment, he is brought to the leader's meeting, and the missionary
examines into his knowledge of Christianity, and his moral character.

on the Extinction of Slaveri/. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Barry. 347

and whether he is in debt, or any pecuniary embarrassment, and it is
only when the missionary is satisfied on these points that he is av-
pointed a leader. There would have probably iDeen more slaves ap-
pointed leaders, but for the prejudices existing in the colony, which are
so strong- that it v^^as always avoided as much as possible. But for this
vast numbers of slaves were as fit to be leaders and subordinate teachers
as any freemen in Jamaica. The Negroes are not allowed to preach.
Mr. Barry had often heard them pray and communicate religious
instruction ; but none of them are allowed to become public teachers for
the same reason, that of obviating prejudice (p. 78).

Mr. Barry had resided as a missionary not only in St. Thomas in the
Vale, but in Kingston and Spanish Town, occasionally exercising his
ministry in St. Dorothy's, at Old Harbour; and in Clarendon, on the
estate of Lime Savannah, belonging to M. de la Beche. He had not,
however, an opportunity of visiting the slaves in their huts, or convers-
ing much with them, except in the way of religious instruction on
Sunday, and on evenings in the week. Four times a year, hov^ever, he
had' direct and personal intercourse with every individual of the con-
gregations in order to ascertain his religious and moral state. Mr.
Barry^does not believe that there is any essential difference in the cha-
racters of the Negroes in different parts of the island, or on different
plantations, except in the grosser ignorance of some of the parties.
On the sugar estates they are generally very destitute of instruction
indeed. ^The difference of character arose mainly from their respective
advantages or disadvantages (p. 81).

Mr. Barry did not know what time was required for the cultivation
of different articles of Negro provisions. Plantain walks required
little time when once established. Yams required considerable labour
in the cleaning and weeding (p. 83).

Mr. Barry never knew emancipated slaves to v/ork in the field on
sugar estates. No freeman would willingly submit to the degradation
of working in the field with slaves on plantations, and planters would
not allow of it r many of them had themselves told him so ; and they
were generally indisposed to the intrusion of the free on estates.

Being asked hov/ sugar would be cultivated if the slaves were im-
mediately emancipated, he replied that, on his first arrival in Jamaica,
he was opposed to such a plan, and did not think that emancipation
would be safe. As he became more fully acquainted with the Negro
character he changed his opinion. He was convinced of their general
disposition to labour for a fair remuneration, and he believed that any
danger which might possibly arise from emancipation bore no possible
proportion to the danger that must result from the perpetuation of
slavery. With respect to sugar plantations, though some difficulties might
exist in the first instance, in inducing the Negroes when free to work
upon them, yet with due precautions, and the sense the Negroes had of
the value of money, he certainly thought they would be induced to labour
even on sugar estates. He was aware of their dislike to sugar culture
more than to any other work, and this might operate on their minds for

348 Report of a Committee of the House of Commona

a time, in the event of freedom ; but he felt convinced, from their hard-
working habits, and their love of money, that a proper remuneration
would lead even those on sugar plantations to continue to work upon
them. This conclusion had been drawn from a long course of observa-
tion, which had enabled him, as he believed, to form a correct judg-
ment of the habits and views of the Negroes, and from frequent conver-
sations with coffee planters around him. He had conversed little
with sugar planters. He repeated his strong and immovable conviction,
from all he had seen and heard, that the Negroes, when free, would
work diligently, even in cane-hole digging, if adequately remunerated
for their labour (p. 85, 86).

Being asked what he meant by proper precautions accompanying
emancipation, Mr. Barry replied that he meant more particularly a
strong police force, and the appointment of a magistracy for the special
purpose of preserving the public peace. In the event of a general
emancipation he should consider this as a proper precautionary measure,
to repress any partial tumult or disorder ; and, as a measure of prudence,
it ought to be maintained for some years afterwards, say five or six or
more, according to circumstances. A large force properly distributed
might be expedient, in the first instance ; but, believing that there
would not be any general indisposition in the Negroes to labour or to
due subordination, a large force would not, after a time, be requisite ;
and in some districts, little or no difficulty of any kind would be expe-
rienced (p. 86).

Being further questioned as to his manner of reconciling the necessity
of coercion to compel the slave to labour, with his viev/ of the indus-
trious habits of the Negroes, he said that the infliction of punishment
often depended on the driver alone. Besides, the slave now considered
himself to labour v/ithout remuneration. The whole system was com-
pulsory, and he himself was the object of that compulsion. While the
present system of slavery endured, such compulsion, by the corporal
punishment both of females and males, was, he believed, necessary
(p. 87).

In St. Thomas in the Vale, the members of the Wesleyan Society
amounted to about 700, besides free people; 300 or 400 usually
attending. The school here was very inefficient. In Kingston their
three chapels contained about 4000 ; about half who attended were
slaves, and of the slaves about half were domestics and mechanics
residing in Kingston ; the rest plantation slaves ; but the plantation
slaves could not attend every Sunday, and many only every third or
fourth Sunday, on account of their own engagements. There was a
vast number in the Sunday schools, both children and adults, many
capable of reading the Scriptures. The schools have been much more
efficient of late. The children are taken in at all ages, from four
years and upwards. The parents take a manifest interest in the pro-
gress of their children in reading. A great number of children, but by
no means a majority of them, are taught to read, and a child diligently
attending for twelve months may acquire a knowledge of reading. In

on the Extinction of Slavery. ^Evidence of the Rev. J. Barry, 349

Si^anish Town there were about eighty slaves in the school, some of
them, but not many, adults. Those not taught to read are orally
instructed in religion. The slave children in the town attended twice
on Sunday. The general aptitude of the Negroes to learn is about as
great as that of any other peasant population. There is a great
number of children who are now able to read, and some can write ; several
adults also, who have received instruction solely in the Wesleyan
Sunday School. In Kingston there is a day school, lately formed,
attended by about 150 children. There is here a mixture of free and
slaves, and of brown and black, but Mr. Barry does not know the
proportions. The parents of the free children pay towards their school-
ing. These schools ,have been encouraged by some owners, but very
generally discouraged by others. The indisposition is very prevalent to
religious instruction, whether given by sectarians or not. Planters would
prefer not having their slaves instructed at all by ministers of the
church or of any other persuasion. This Mr. Barry asserted from
what he had seen and known. He had known many severe corporal
punishments inflicted for no other crime than that of merely attending
public worship (p. 88, 89, 90).

Then follows a long enquiry about a set of resolutions passed by
some Wesleyan Missionaries in Jamaica, on the 6th September, 1824,
and afterwards disowned by the society at home ; but, having no refer-
ence whatever to the points now at issue, the whole is omitted.

Mr. Barry afterwards went on to state that he knew several estates
on which facilities v/ere afforded for the instruction of the slaves, both
by clergymen and by missionaries of the Scotch church. But he did
not know of many instances in which additional places of worship to
the parish church had been erected by voluntary contributions in
Jamaica. He knew of some : some catechists had been sent out to
estates, connected, he supposed, with the Church of England, but they
were discouraged. A few clergymen, of the Church of England, are
active in preaching in chapels to the slaves, and in forming Sunday
schools; but they do not carry on preaching or instruction on the estates.
There are four Scotch Missionaries on the island (p. 99, 100),

Mr. Barry denied that, to his knowledge, any Wesleyan Missionaries
had ever corresponded with the Anti-Slavery Society in England. He
knew them occasionally to send letters to the newspapers and other
periodical publications in Jamaica (p. 100).

Mr. Barry was then questioned as to his view of _the moral state of
the white society of Jamaica. His view was briefly to this effect : —
While he resided at Grateful Hill, in St. Thomas in the Vale, two women
canae to complain that, the night before, the overseer of Mount Concord
had taken away three of their daughters, the eldest thirteen, and locked
them up for improper purposes, and they begged him to interfere. He
said no ; but sent them to the nearest magistrate, Mr. Lane, who interposed
and had the girls set at liberty. In this way a knowledge of facts was
often obtained by the missionaries without any interference on their
part. As to concubinage, it prevailed generally throughout the island.

350 Report of a Committee of the House of Cojumons

It is impossible for any man to reside in Jamaica, or travel through it,
without being perfectly acquainted with this fact. Certainly many
scenes occur peculiarly offensive to morals, in England as well as in-
Jamaica ; but, as for concubinage, it is carried on to a greater extent in
Jamaica than he could ever have conceived possible in any country.
Concubinage exists to a greot extent among all classes, but it prevails
most among the whites, merchants, planters, clerks ; indeed, the whole
white population. In short, the system of concubinage is universal in
Jamaica : to say it is general is saying too little. That very circum-
stance constitutes one of the principal obstructions to missionary labours
in Jamaica. To the consequences immediately resulting from the power
of the master over his female slaves must be ascribed the general demo-
ralization in which the island is plunged. A proprietor, for instance,
has twenty female slaves on his estate, all of them entirely at his dis-
posal : that of itself must lead to great demoralization. But these
women have children, to whom and to the mother the master often gives
freedom. Children of such parents, under such circumstances, can
hardly hope for marriage with mea of respectable character; and wo-
men of colour v/ill not intermarry v/ith those that are below them in life.
The distinctions of society are all founded in colour. Hence concubinage
is resorted to, and mothers prefer letting out their daughters to white
men to marrying them v/ith people of their own colour. This Mr. Barry
has frequently known to take place, all originating in the original illicit
commerce of whites v/ith slaves. In case of emancipation Mr. Barry
does not conceive that this evil would continue in the same degree as at
present ; not only will the women be less in the power of masters but
religious instruction has already elevated many, and will elevate still
more, among the women of colour, to make every sacrifice to escape from
this state of vice and degradation. A young woman of colour had
formerly lived with a merchant, who died, and from him she had received
some property ; but the executor or attorney of the estate, taking a
fancy to this lady, requestedher to live with him. She refused to do so,
from religious motives, and she was obliged to purchase of this man
the property that had been given to her, but for which she could exhibit
no deed. This case he mentioned to show the effects of religion, in
leading women of colour to resist the strongest inducements to return
to their former degraded habits. She was at that time about thirty
years of age. Mr. Barry adds that he could produce many instances of
the same kind. The ignorance prevailing among these women of colour
he aflfirrns to be deplorable. He knew one who had seventeen children,
and no two by the same father, and who rode in her carriage. No
moral turpitude attaches to such female deviations from rectitude. A
woman v/ho gives her daughter to-day to live in concubinage holds
the same rank in society she did the day before: he spoke of the
coloured women. The white women in Jamaica are a virtuous race. The
women of colour, but less so than formerly, prefer concubinage with the
whites to marriage with their own colour ; but this is attributable to
slavery. The decrease of this evil may be traced, in almost every instance,

1

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Barry. 351

to religious instruction. Among the slaves too there is a strong desire to
receive religious instruction, and he had never seen any general indis-
position among them to receive it (p. 101, 102).

In the Wesleyan Society in Jamaica there are about 13,000 members,
of whom 10,000 are slaves, a great many attending the chapels who
are not members. The church in Kingston is generally well attended,
so is the Kirk, but few slaves attend either. In the towns, and espe-
cially in Kingston, the proportion attending public worship is veiy con-
siderable; but in the country places few attend, either slaves or free. They
have ^ew opportunities, fev; places of worship. It is Mr. Barry's firm
belief that religion alone will keep the slaves quiet in the hope of ul-
timate emancipation, but nothing will ever extinguish their strong de-
sire of freedom. As the slave becomes enlightened, his desire after
freedom certainly becomes more intense, though religion will enable
him to control his passions, and wait for the legitimate accomplish-
ment of his wishes. This appeared strongly in the conduct of the Wes-
leyan slaves in the late insurrection. Religion must certainly increase
the desire of freedom : this is in the nature of things (p. 102, 103).

Mr. Barry further declared his firm conviction that no missionaries
of any denomination in Jamaica, whether Methodists, Baptists, or Mora-
vians had ever had, even remotely, any thing (o do with the late insur-
rection. There are circumstances in the constitution of the Baptist So-
ciety which gave a colour, though most unjustly, to the charges against
them. Baptists give tickets to men enquiring about religion ; but the
Wesleyans only to those who are admitted as members. There was
not the slightest ground for any imputation on the Baptist missionaries.
The causes which appeared to Mr. Barry to have led to the insurrec-
tion were these: — The slaves had long known what had been passing
in this country respecting their freedom, and had been led to entertain
the notion that the king had given them their freedom, but that their
masters withheld it from them. The parochial meetings that took place
in Jamaica, the resolutions of which were published in all the island
newspapers, requesting to be absolved from their allegiance, was one
of the proximate causes. Some whites also travelling through the
island frequently take newspapers with them, which they read to
the slaves. Negroes attending at the tables of their masters hear
their masters discussing the questions of freedom and slavery as
freely as if no slaves were present. The parochial resolutions seemed
to the slaves to shut the door against their hope of freedom. Then
there was Mr. Beaumont's bill for compulsory manumission, which was
at once rejected by the assembly. The slaves had been elated to the
highest pitch of joy by its introduction, and proportionately depressed
by its rejection. The uncalled-for publication of the king's proclam'a-
tion, in December 1831, was also an unfortunate occurrence. It co-
operated powerfully to promote the insurrection. Such were its main
causes (p. 104 and 105).

His reasons for thinking that there was more danger in withholding
than in granting freedom were, that the Negroes knew very well what

352 Report of the Coraniittec of the Huv.se of Commons

was going oa in their favour in this country. Their minds have been
long set on freedom, and they never will be satisfied without it. A
feeling of liberty has gone abroad among them. Many of the Negroes
who suffered during the insurrection died glorying in their death.
And, with all this danger on one side, no evil bearing any proportion to
it could possibly result from freedom (p. 106).

The Negroes who cultivate their own grounds are well fed, but their
clothing would not be sufficient for decency, were it not for what they
purchase for themselves. All this, however, is gained by the sacrifice
of the slaves' Sunday (p. 106).

III. The Rev. Peter Duncan was the third witness called. He
had been a Wesleyan Missionary in Jamaica for more than eleven
years ; had resided five years in St. Thomas in the East, two in
Kingston, two in St. Thomas in the Vale, and two in Montego Bay.
In St. Thomas in the East, which was a great sugar parish, there
were three chapels, in all of which he did duty. There were about
1000 slaves attending at these chapels, besides free people ; but the
members of the society Vi^ere much more numerous, for all could not
attend each Sunday. The chapels were as full as they could hold.
There were no Sunday schools at first : they v/ere regarded with an un-
favourable eye by the planters. At Kingston about 3000 attended in two
chapels, a third has been added since ; the majority of the slaves there
were domestics. In St. Thomas in the Vale about 300 attended, chiefly
plantation slaves. At Montego Bay the average attendance was be-
tween 600 and 700, more than half being slaves, and of these a half
being plantation slaves. There were Sunday schools at all these places,
principally for children , but also for adults. At Kingston there were
300 children of both sexes taught. It was not till 1825 that the Sun-
day schools became efficient, and that reading was taught, A day school
was opened in 1830, attended both by slaves and free, about half of
each. The teachers were coloured persons. The aptitude of the
scholars was pretty much as elsewhere (p. 106 and 107),

From all that Mr, Duncan saw of the slaves, he thought they were
just as willing to labour as the people of any other country. Hard
labour being performed by slaves in Jamaica stamps it with a kind of
disgrace ; but, when they get above that feeling, they are much more
willing to labour v/hen free than when slaves. Their desire too to ac-
quire comforts and luxuries, beyond their allowances as slaves, is very
evident, Tliey have in general a stronger taste for these things than
the lower classes in European countries. He had seen emancipated
slaves with their little settlements so arranged, and their premises so
regulated, as to indicate a desire for very superior comforts and luxu-
ries in furniture and dress : this is quite obvious to the spectator.
He is persuaded that if emancipation were general, and firmly esta-
blished, the Negroes would be more industrious than at present : the
unthinking and worthless among them might shrink from labour, but, if
slavery were done away, hard labour would be stripped of its degrada-

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 353

tion, and they would labour generally and industriously. As a body
Mr. Dancan thought th^m the most industrious people he had ever
seen. The free people he had known do not at all murmur at hard la-
bour, but they would not submit to go and dig cane-holes, that being
slaves' work. Many of them who have even had the advantage of a
liberal education will pursue without complaint, and perseveringly,
work as laborious as cane-holes. They have appeared to him to have
energy little short of the people at home, though warm climates are
less favourable to exertion (p. 108 and 109).

Mr. Duncan was well acquainted with plantation slaves, especially
in St. Thomas in the East, but almost wholly in the way of religious
communication. When he went on plantations he had no intercourse
with the slaves, nor visited their houses, but he knew much of their
habits and mode of living from conversation with themselves, and
with attorneys, overseers, and others. The enquiries which were found
necessary to be made into the causes of absence from divine worship
revealed much of the interior of plantations, and pains were taken to
substantiate excuses by the evidence of slaves on the same estate
on whom reliance could be placed. The most general excuse was that
they were bound to attend their provision grounds. He believed it
to be quite indispensable at present for the slaves to labour in their
grounds on a Sunday. He never expected to see them oftener
than once a month, and this even in the case of such as had masters
favourable to instruction. The number of slave members in St.
Thomas in the East was 3000 or 4000, but only about 1000 attended
each Sunday. It was absolutely necessary that they should devote
their Sundays frequently to their provision grounds, to have even a
bare maintenance for themselves and families. Indeed the slaves are
compelled by their masters, in some cases, to go upon their grounds on
Sunday. In one instance Mr. Duncan had to intercede with a humane
master to save a Negro from being flogged, whose crime was that he
had been to the parish church on Sunday, instead of going to his
grounds. It was scarcely possible for the slaves to keep the Sabbath
strictly, or to attend every Sunday. Some have attempted it, but have
suffered materially. Religious instruction certainly tended to make
the slave more patient of injury, as he had seen in many instances; but
it also diffused a light which tended to make them long for its extinc-
tion. It cannot be that slavery should long continue in any country
which is generally christianized, so that Christianity maybe fairly said
to be at issue with slavery; but, if religion get hold of the slave's mind,
he will submit to his lot till freed by legitimate means. It is the duty
of slaves to obey their masters ; but that does not justify slavery, nor
will it prevent the light from flowing in on the slaves, whether religious
or not, who have an education. They cannot be indifferent hearers
of the discussions going on around ihem. Slavery cannot stand before
the light of instruction. Mere oral instruction, indeed, would do little,
as in Catholic slave communities ; for no substantial knowledge can
be communicated without letters. The work of Christianity, however, is

3 A

354 Report of a Coynmittee of the House of Commons

still in its infancy in Jamaica. The number of slaves religiously in-
structed is very small as compared with the population, and the pro-
portion of them that can read is of course still smaller. The moral state
of the uninstructed Negroes is awfully degraded. Marriage is almost
wholly neglected by them, and indeed is not unfrequently opposed by
the whites who are living themselves in the same low and vicious habits
as the Negroes. But even those slaves that are uninstructed are very
acute in understanding their own interests, and in making a bargain ;
and he would entertain no doubt of their ready subjection to the au-
thorities over them (p. 111,112.)

Mr. Duncan believed that wages would induce the Negroes to
labotir when free, and that they would labour harder in a state of free-
dom than ^ey now do. They now want the stimulus of remuneration ,
and that makes the toil hard which would otherwise be light. Cane-
hole digging, though hard, is not harder than the work of English la-
bourers, nor harder than that which is voluntarily undergone by
many free persons in Jamaica itself. He has known such exert them-
selves in their own grounds, and at their trade, more than the Negroes
in the cane-holes. Whether sugar would be raised in the same quantity
as now in Jamaica if the slaves were free, he would not pretend to af-
firm; but that sugar might be raised he has no doubt, nor that num-
bers would labour in raising sugar for wages. There need be very
little change in the mode of remuneration ; the labourers might have
land and increased time for their own use, only having the Sabbath as
a day of entire rest (p. 113).

Mr. Duncan further stated that he had had, over and over again^
the testimony of masters, attorneys, and overseers, to the beneficial
effects of religious instruction in improving the morals of the slaves,
and in restraining the disposition to thieving and licentiousness, and
he had seen it himself in a thousand instances. The very same
moralizing effects are produced by it in Jamaica as in England
(p. 113).

He doubted on what footing sugar cultivation might stand, in the
case of emancipation ; but he believed that a great number of the
present slaves, attached as they were to their domiciles, and having
their provision grounds already planted on the estates, would be
desirous of remaining where they were, and would continue to
cultivate sugar for wages. If they had money enough to obtain
land of their own, they would doubtless prefer cultivating that. With
the twenty-six weekdays they nowhave,and the Sundays, they are able
to raise food for their comfortable subsistence. He had heard few
complaints on that head, and he mentioned it with very great
pleasure. A day and a half in the week, liowever, is the very least that
can suffice, allowing Sunday free. Seven days in the week could not
fail to put him in a state of the highest comfort, if he had land in
possession ; and if he had land, and his time, he would soon have
property. In case of emancipation the money possessed by the
slaves would be expended in buying land, and forming settlements of
their own. Land would then rise in value, and at length be as much

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 355

out of their reach as it is now out of the reach of the peasantry of
this country. The greater part of them, however, would not be able
to obtain land. They have now provision grounds cultivated and ready
to their hand; they would be reluctant to leave them, and, if
encouraged by the master, they would be willing to remain and
labour on the sugar plantations. They receive now no food from
their masters that he ever heard of, but a few herrings or other salt
fish, occasionally. If free, they might pay a rent, by labouring for
their former masters. The black labourer might give, say four days'
labour in the week to the master, to cultivate sugar, and employ two
days for himself and family. If he could do better in any other way
he might prefer it ; yet those who had lived long on certain estates,
where they had been born and brought up, and where they had
become familiar with sugar culture, would, he believed, be willing to
remain and give labour in return for a certain portion of land which
the owner might let them have. But if they could purchase, or rent,
land of their own, some might prefer it. He had no idea of their
attempting to possess themselves forcibly of it (p. 113, 114).

He did not know how much time it took the Negroes to raise their
food ; but the time allowed them was not more than enough for that
purpose, and the little additional comforts they required. Some
were well clothed, others very badly, although all of them are de-
sirous of appearing as fine as they can. In labouring on their own
grounds they generally appear very diligent, but the labour is not
severe. They work with the hoe. In general they are very anxious
for conveniences, and even finery, and they work very diligently, and
even laboriously, in their grounds ; but they have often to go a long
way to market ; and what between this and planting their provi-
sions, and keeping them clean, and gathering them, and preparing
them, carrying them home, and taking them to market and selling
them, their time is generally fully occupied.

It is not possible for them, but in rare instances, to attend both
church and market, even when the church is contiguous to the market.
They cannot quit their marketing till it is finished, and then the
forenoon service is over. In the afternoon they are obliged to return
home early, especially in crop time, when they must be home to put
the mills about on Sunday evenings.* There is, therefore, no time to
sell their provisions and attend chapel too (p. 115). In point of fact,
they scarcely ever do attend market and chapel on the same day. In
the former case their secular engagements seem wholly to engross
them. In St. James some few attended both, but crop time lasts
there for six months, and the necessity of being at home to put the
mills about rendered it generally impossible. At Montego bay the
market was chiefly supplied by slaves, and it probably miay be so in
Kingston and other places. The Negroes obtain money by selling
hogs and poultry, as well as provisions, especially the head men.

* There is a law against putting the mills about on Sunday evenings, in
Jamaica, of which the Jamaicans make a great boast. This evidence shows how
ill it is observed.

356 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

Other Negroes who have peculiar advantages have hogs and poultry,
but they complain of the overseers' often shooting their hogs and
taking their poultry — sometimes for straying, sometimes from mere
wantonness (p. 119.)

If compulsory manumission were the law of the island, some slaves
would be able to buy their freedom, but not many as compared with
the whole population (p. 117).

The fish allowed to the slaves is given them, not on the Saturday,
but, according to the statement of the planters themselves, on every
alternate Sunday, except in one or two parishes (p. 117).

Inconveniences might possibly arise, both to master and slave, from
any great and sudden change, like that of emancipation, as they arise
more or less from all great changes. But it is Mr. Duncan's firm
opinion that, even if the Negroes were emancipated, at a stroke, there
would not be that loss or disturbance which must ensue if emancipa-
tion is long delayed. Emancipation might take place with perfect
tranquillity, if a proper police were established. The public peace,
however, would be very seriously endangered by any long delay, or
without a reasonable hope of early emancipation. He does not take it
upon him to say what would precisely be the effects of emancipation ;
but he is persuaded that if one set of labourers could not be got to
work on a particular estate, another would. In the event of freedom,
the resources of the island would be rapidly developed ; machinery
would be more employed ; and the Negroes, he is convinced, would
labour in general, as they do now, for a remuneration, only with more
heart, and with more profit to the master. They would in that case, he
fully believes, cultivate sugar as they now do, and go through all the
process of cane-hole digging and the duties of the boiling houses. Their
inducement to this would be the desire of liberty, and of their own
profit, so natural toman. He would himself rather dig cane-holes all
his life, than have all the money on earth and be a slave ; and the
Negroes partake of that feeling. It is infinitely more ardent in their
minds, as late events have proved, than was supposed. He could
raise provisions indeed, but he must first acquire land on which to
raise it, and if he had not property he must labour for it. They
would, it is true, rather pay a rent in cash than in labour, but either
would be equally beneficial to the master. The 300,000 Negroes of
Jamaica, if. they possessed the land themselves, would have no
inducement to work for others, if they could work for their own
profit. But few of them could buy land at first ; and if emancipation
were universal, land would be more difficult to get than now. At
present their provision grounds are not generally disturbed, but still
complaints are often made that after having cleared, and planted, and
cultivated their grounds, they are taken from them by the overseers ;
and, though this injustice may not be general, yet the grounds are
secured to them by no legal tenure. It is not a common case ; but
when it does occur the complaints are very loud, aiid the overseer
has certainly the power to do it. Mr. Duncan had heard of the diffi-
culty which Mr. Simon Taylor had experienced in inducing his slaves
to allow some cocoa trees of theirs to be cut down which were sup-

on the extinction of Slaver^/. — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 357

posed to interfere with the healthiness of their houses on Holland
estate, but his forbearance was mentioned as a rare instance of dis-
interestedness, and eulogized as highly as language could praise any-
thing. As to what would be the actual result of emancipation, Mr.
Duncan could not venture to predict ; but his hope was that the
Negroes would desire to retain their provision grounds, and that
masters would feel it their interest to secure as many willing and
efficient labourers as possible, and that they would make bargains for
certain portions of ground in lieu of certain quantities of labour. This
would be the mutual interest of proprietors and labourers, and that they
would feel ; and therefore the slaves would be ready to comply with
any reasonable overtures of the masters. If the property of the master
in the slave ceased, the right of the slave to his ground would also
cease, and a new bargain would have to be made. The slave would
still feel his dependence on his master, notwithstanding his freedom,
and the master would be able to say to the slave, " There is the
ground which is no longer yours, as you are a free man, but mine; but,
if you will continue to work for me, you will have for your labour that
land and so much time to cultivate it." He could have no doubt,
from his knowledge of the Negro character, of their acceding to any
such reasonable proposition, if made by one on whose veracity they
could rely ; and, as to the religiously-instructed slaves, there would,
in his view, be no difficvdty whatever. The religious slaves, too, are
considered by the others as their best friends and advisers ; and as for
enforcing such contracts, and ousting of their grounds those who
failed, an active police could easily enforce the law. In St. Thomas
in the East, for example, the number of Methodist converts is from 3
to 4,000. Their influence over the rest was demonstrated during the
late insurrection. The slaves of St. Thomas in the East were as
much agitated as in other parishes, yet the influence of the religious
slaves was so great that, while the whites of the parish were all absent,
engaged in militia duty, a 'planter from that district stated that the
Negroes there took off the crop as well in the absence of the white
people as if they had been present. In the plaintain garden district
of St. Thomas in the East, here chiefly referred to, religion has existed
longer and been less opposed than in most other quarters. In Man-
chioneel district, on the contrary, where religion had been con-
stantly opposed, the Negroes were very troublesome and discontented;
but where religion had been encouraged and embraced, while in
other parts of the island labour was, to a great extent, suspended,
there it was going on as well as if nothing had happened (p. 117, 118,
119, 120, 121).

With respect to opposition to religious instruction, Mr. Duncan
had known as much made to zealous clergymen of the established
church, and of the Scotch kirk, as to any others. The erection even
of additional places of worship seemed to him to arise rather from a
wish to appear in England more friendly to religion than they really
were, than to promote the religious instruction of the slaves ; and for
this reason, that the most laborious clergymen had been always as
much opposed as any dissenting ministers ever were. Of the general

358 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

body of the clergy, about 42 in all, four or five have been very labo-
rious among the slaves ; and these have been as severely opposed as
any Methodists or Baptists ever were. As for the established Scotch
church, there is only one place of worship, namely, Mr. Wordy's, at
Kingston ; he had been frequently there, and never had seen one
slave attending (p. 122).

As to plans of emancipation, Mr. Duncan thought that all partial
plans would fail of their effect. The best was that of emancipating
all children born after a certain day, but even that was attended
with great and perhaps insuperable difficulties. Still that would be
better than nothing. The only plan not attended with very great,
perhaps insuperable difficulties, is a general emancipation. Not that
there are not great dilEculties in the way of that measure, but they
may more easily be overcome (p. 123, 124).

Mr. Duncan then entered into some explanations respecting the
resolutions of the Methodist Missionaries in 1824, already adverted
to, and which were disclaimed by their superiors at home. The only
part of it we shall now notice is the case laid by the Missionaries be-
fore Mr. Burge for his opinion, and his reply to it, which tended to
produce in the minds of the Missionaries the alarm which led to their
rash and ill-considered resolutions.

The parliamentary resolutions of May, 1823, had scarcely reached
Jamaica when, however unreasonable and absurd, it was stated, and
generally believed, that the Methodist Society had something to do
with them. Very great prejudice was thus excited against us. It
was threatened to shut up the chapels. Two Missionaries had ar-
rived, and had applied for a license to preach in our parish ; but the
license was refused. An alien act was then in force, which was
thought sufficient to enable the Governor to transport any suspected
persons. It was even proposed that we should be transported as well
as refused permission to preach. Here was a painful state of things,
especially as it was uncertain what might be the sentiments of His
Majesty's Government at home upon the great subject of religious
toleration in Jamaica. The Missionaries got alarmed, and they
applied to a legal gentleman, Mr. Burge, to know what was the law
of Jamaica upon that subject, and his opinion added greatly to their
alarm.

The case laid before Mr. Burge, with his opinion, was read as fol-
lows : —

" To the Honourable William Burge, Esq., His Majesty's Attorney-
General, Jamaica.

" The Reverend Francis Tremayne, Wesleyan Missionary, arrived in
this island in March, 1823, possessed of the regular documents of his
church, viz., a letter of ordination and certificate of license, obtained
before the Lord Mayor of London, authenticated in the usual way by
signatures and seal. At the first court of quarter sessions held at
Spanish Town, after his arrival, he applied for and obtained a license
to officiate in the precinct of St. Catherine's. After having laboured
with success, and to general satisfaction, for twelve months in St. Tho-
mas in the Vale, he was removed to St. Ann's, taking with him testi-

on the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 359

monials from the only magistrates of the immediate neighbourhood
of their decided approbation of his conduct, which letters were pro-
duced in the court of quarter sessions held at St. Ann's Bay, on the
13th ultimo, together with his letter of ordination, English license,
and the license obtained in Spanish Town, in this island, at which
court he made application for leave again to take the usual oaths, to
qualify him for officiating in twp of our chapels \vhich had been pre-
viously licensed by that court, which was rejected. Now the ques-
tions on which we would solicit your opinion are these —

'* First, — Has not Mr. Tremayne sufficiently complied with the law
to authorise him to preach in those chapels ?"

" As I consider it necessary for the minister to qualify at the court
of quarter sessions of that parish to which he removes, and in which
he intends to officiate, and as Mr. Tremayne has not been admitted to
qualify by the court of quarter sessions of the parish of Saint Ann's,
I am of opinion that he is not authorised to preach in that parish.—^

W. BuRGE."

" Second, — Is not one personal license obtained in any parish in this
island sufficient to qualify a man for the whole or any licensed house?"

"I do not consider that one personal license obtained in any parish
in this island is sufficient to qualify a man for the whole or any licensed
house.— W.B."

" Third, — Provided that one personal license is not sufficient, and
a Missionary with such documents is denied the privilege of thus re-
qualifying in any court of quarter sessions, can such a court be com-
pelled to re-qualify such a person by writ of mandamus or otherwise ?"

" 1 am of opinion that, if he is possessed of all the documents above
referred to, and the court of quarter sessions refused to admit him to
qualify, such court might by mandamus be compelled to admit him.
— W. B."

" Fourth, — What could be done provided a Missionary, with only
his regular home documents, should be refused a license by a court of
quarter sessions in this island, could he have redress by a writ of
mandamus or otherwise ?"

" If the Missionary had not officiated in any parish, and consequent-
ly had not obtained his license from any court of quarter sessions,
as in the case of a minister on his first arrival in the island, and had
therefore only the documents authenticating and evidencing his ordi-
nation as a minister, I consider that the court of quarter sessions
might by mandamus be compelled to admit him to qualify. — I cannot
conclude my answer to these questions without impressing upon the
serious consideration of the Wesleyan Missionaries the very great in-
expediency, both as it regards the welfare of their institution in the
island, and the public repose of the island, of engaging at a crisis so
agitated as the present in any litigation with the local magistracy on
this subject. With the limited information that is possessed respect-
ing the distinguishing tenets of different religious sects, it is not sur-
prising that many persons of great worth and great liberality should
entertain, from the conduct of the Missionary Smith, at Demerara,
strong feelings on the introduction of any Missionaries. It woidd be

360 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

highly imprudent, aiid quite at variance with the correct conduct of
the Wesleyan Missionaries in this island, to incur the risk of increas-
ing or confirming those feelings by any litigation with the magistracy.
— W. B."

Now it was under the alarm and apprehensions thus produced that
the resolutions were hastily adopted.

Mr. Duncan was residing at Kingston when the late insurrection
broke out. He had resided two years before at Montego Bay, and
therefore well knew the quarter in which it broke out. The causes
he thought obvious.

1st. The ill-judged policy of the British Government, which, in-
stead of conciliating the planters, as they vainly hoped, had greatly ex-
asperated them. Had they carried the emancipation at once, in 1823,
less loss would have resulted to the master, and far less misery to the
slave. Vehement excitement, and discussions without end, were the
consequence. The slaves heard and knew all this ; for the planters
were not very careful in expressing themselves before the slaves.

2nd. The parochial meetings, and the resolutions there adopted, in
1831, which were of the most violent character, — stating that the king's
government wished to take their property from them, and make the
slaves free, and that they would renounce their allegiance rather than
submit to this, being determined to hold their slaves in bondage. —
The slaves said naturally enough, " our masters tell us the king wants
to make us free, but they will not submit, but keep us slaves still."
This was their impression. Now the king has not more loyal subjects
in the wide extent of his dominions than the slaves of Jamaica.
They will do any thing for him. They revere his very name. Be-
lieving the two parties were at issue, they had no difficulty in taking
their side with the king.

3rd. The unceasing opposition to religious instruction, in different
districts of the island, on the part of the planters. And while
the religious slaves desired religious liberty that they might benefit
by their teachers, the more unprincipled and uninstructed availed
themselves of this desire to diffuse principles injurious to the peace
of society.

4th. Mr. Beaumont's bill for compulsory manumission. Many Ne-
groes hailed it with high satisfaction ; they thought it would pass,
and, when they saw it thrown out by an immense majority, they gave
way to a feeling of despair, and seeing their masters determined to
keep them in slavery, though the king wished not, they resolved to
rise and take their freedom.

5th. The dread of having the island transferred to the United
States. Now not only the slaves, but the free classes, are enthu-
siastically loyal, and their hatred to America is as deep and deadly
as their attachment to Great Britain is warm and devoted. A flame
would have burst out before this but for the people of colour, who,
it is known, Avould be ready to oppose the very first movement of the
kind. They would not submit to such a thing ; they hate the very
name of America, and every thing that is British is dear to them as a
body.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev, P. Duncan. 361

Mr. Duncan said that the plans of his majesty's government had
produced evil. But this was not because they were evil in them-
selves; on the contrary, they were wise and moderate, and, if they
had been acceded to by the planters, they would have done good :
but the planters, instead of falling in with the views of g<^vernment,
uniformly opposed them. It would have been far better for the
planters had the slaves been made free at once ; for all opposition
must have soon subsided, and it would only have been the efferves-
cence of the moment.

Being asked how many of the whites would have remained in the
island afterwards, he replied, the whole of them. It might have
been followed by some inconveniences ; but there would not have been
either that loss to the planter, or that misery to the slave, which has
been caused by the violent opposition of the planters to every wish of
the government. It was his calm and decided opinion that emanci-
pation would not tend to the effusion of blood, but that the attempt
to perpetuate or prolong slavery certainly would. Even now, the
violence of the whites in their persecution of religion, the destruction
of places of worship, and the oppression of missionaries and their con-
verts, was exciting an unwonted irritation in the minds of the slaves
and free classes, who were prepared for stern resistance to farther
outrages. Even the less religious part of the coloured people felt
deeply interested in the cause of civil and religious liberty, and they
were bent on actively resisting any farther attempt to infringe them.
Yesterday letters were received stating that one of the Wesleyan
missionaries at Falmouth was attacked by a mob of white men, who
entered his premises armed with bludgeons ; bedaubed him with tar ;
knocked down himself and his wife ; attempted to set fire to him,
and to throw his infant child out of the window. The timely inter-
ference of the people of colour prevented all the mischief that was
intended ; but, when the missionary went to lodge informations against
these rioters, he could get no magistrate to take his depositions.
Such things must lead to blood : indeed the prolongation of slavery
must lead to it. Emancipation would be perfectly harmless com-
pared with this state of things. Indeed so completely has the law
proved ineffectual for the protection of property, that the people of
colour seriously talked of arming for its defence (p. 140). Besides,
the systematic opposition of the planters generally, and with a few
bright exceptions, to that religious instruction for which the slaves
are so eager, joined to their growing thirst for civil liberty, increased
ten-fold by late events, must be fatal ere long to the public peace.
Whatever dangers, therefore, there may be in emancipation, they are
very greatly exceeded by the danger of prolonging the present system.
The slaves who were executed died exulting in suffering for the sake
of freedom ; and this is a feeling likely to increase. Without a rea-
sonable prospect of early emancipation, it is my firm and deliberate
opinion the peace of the island cannot be preserved for any thing
like five years (p. 131 — 134).

Mr. Duncan then stated the case of Henry Williams, a slave, of
the cruelties practised on whom, on account of his religion, a full

3 B

362 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

account will be found in a former number of our work (see vol. ill.
p. 356, 384, and 431). During the late insurrection, the estate to
which Henry Williams belonged was left under his care, and he pre-
served it from all disturbance. He was, nevertheless, arrested, tried, and
severely punished, at St. Ann's bay, "for holding unlawful meetings,
and administering unlawful oaths !" This Henry Williams is a very
intelligent person, who can read and write. On the last night of the
year, he did what is customary among the Wesleyans : he spent it in
religious services with a few of his friends. There is also a custom
among the Methodists of renewing, in their chapels, on the com-
mencement of the new year, what they call their covenant with
God. As the chapels were then shut, and the missionaries forced to
leave the parish, Henry Williams read over with his friends the form of
this covenant or engagement ; and, as is also customary, he and they
lifted up their hands in token of assent. Some one having given infor-
mation of thiscircum^ance, Henry was apprehended, taken to St. Ann's
bay, tried by a slave court, and sentenced to be flogged and to six months'
hard labour, in chains, in the work-house, from which he effected his
escape, a circumstance which Mr. Duncan regrets, although the
many cruelties he had patiently borne before, and the injustice and
severityof the present proceeding, seem to have subdued his constancy.
He possessed great influence among the slaves, and the effect of these
proceedings towards him must be bad (p. 141, 142).

Mr. Duncan then gave some account of the Colonial Church
Union of Jamaica, composed of the magistrates and most influential
persons in each parish. The objects of the Union were to " resist the
encroachments of their enemies ;" to furnish " an antidote to the
falsehoods of the Anti-Slavery Society;" to collect "the whole
strength of the island, and to obtain therefrom a general petition to
the legislature, for the expulsion of all Sectarian missionaries ;"
" to strive to regain the confidence of their slaves, by a more rigid
discipline in the first place," and next " by granting every indulgence
that may be merited;" " to lend their influence and support, on all
occasions, to those patriots who, on behalf of the paramount laws of
society, hazard their personal responsibility for our preservation," and
" to obey promptly and implicitly all constitutional orders of the
Union." One of the resolutions adopted by them was to request
all proprietors to restrain their slaves from attending any dissenting
chapel. Many members of these unions are Jews (p. 142, 143).

After the most rigid enquiry, it did not appear that one Wesleyan
convert was concerned in the insurrection. Some of them had suc-
cessfully defended their masters' property. In no case does it seem
possible that slavery and Christianity can long exist together. But,
in the present state of excitement in Jamaica, it seems quite impos-
sible that any efforts of Christian ministers can keep the slaves quiet
in their present state (p. 144).

The hostility of the planters to religion has exceedingly increased
of late. The growing efficiency of missionary labours and Sunday
schools has aggravated it greatly (p. 144).

Mr. Duncan was present, in the House of Assembly, on the 3rd of

on the Extinction of Slavery — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 363

March, 1832, when the Order in Council of the 2ncl November, 1831,
was discussed. One member, Mr. Barry, after a long and violent
speech, moved that the order should be thrown over the bar and
burnt by the hands of the common hangman. Mr. Stamp was not
for proceeding so far ; but, if the British government should try to
enforce it, they had, he said, 18,000 bayonets, and with such a force
they would never submit to the dictation of the King's ministers.
This was known to the slaves. The speeches were published and read
by them, and many blacks too were present in the House at the
time (p. 145).

Mr. Duncan, being asked whether the hostility of the planters to
religion was not a dislike of particular sects, rather than of religion
generally, replied that, wherever Christianity was promulgated, light
was diffused in many cases where the religion was not embraced or
obeyed, and that light could not but make slavery odious. Slavery
was incompatible with the known rights of mankind, and the ideas of
justice, which Christianity recognized and enforced, and must ulti-
mately fall before it. Christianity in Europe extinguished slavery,
by its influence both on the master and the slave. Ministers of the
gospel were bound indeed to inculcate obedience on the slave as a
duty ; but Christianity also binds Christian masters to free their slaves.
The slave is required to obey his master, till his condition is changed ;
but the duty of the master is to " let the people go." This view of
the matter was avoided by the missionaries in Jamaica ; but the
slaves who could read had access to newspapers where slavery
was discussed. The influence of the island press was very injurious
to the cause of Christianity, particularly in exciting the opposition of
the planters. He alluded to the Jamaica Courant, the Falmouth
Courier, the Cornwall Chronicle, and other papers. There was a
paper on the other side, the Watchman, but he did not think it so
hurtful ; for, though it advocated the cause of the slaves, and exposed
the oppressions of slavery, yet it inculcated obedience on the slave
(p. 427).

When asked whether he persisted in saying that religion was
opposed, when taught by the ministers of the Church of England and
Scotland as well as by sectarians, he said he adhered to that opinion,
and he believed that neither the increase of the clergy, nor the addi-
tion of places of worship, arose from any wish to give effective in-
struction to the slaves, but to make people at home think they were
friendly to religion, if taught by the Church. He did not scruple to
say this, though it might appear uncharitable, that such, and even
worse, was the general case, judging from what he had himself seen.
Many of the clergy do not labour at all among the negroes ; those of
them who do so, with zeal and unwearied diligence, as some of them,
about five or six, do, are as much opposed and maligned as any
Methodist, even by persons professing to be members of the church.
It is effective religious instruction, whether oral or otherwise, to which
they are opposed, but especially to the slaves being taught to read.
The clergymen to whom he alluded had themselves told him of the
severe opposition they had to encounter. They were discouraged in

364 Report of a Committee of the House of Coymnons

every way, and their characters traduced. This was quite notorious
(p. 150). ■

Mr. Duncan denied the allegation of their drawing large contribu-
tions from the slaves. The contributions they received came mostly
from the free — not a fiftieth part came from the slaves (p. 151).

Being asked whether he thought the condition of the slave was
more comfortable now than when he first went, twelve years ago, to
Jamaica, he said he did not think so (p. 152).

Mr. Duncan produced a memorial that had been addressed to the
governor. Lord Belmore, in April, 1832, stating the destruction of a
number of their chapels by lawless mobs, and that, having discovered
the authors of these outrages, they had furnished the Attorney General
with informations, on oath, but that no step had been taken by him
to bring the offenders to justice; that their missionaries were pre-
vented from performing their duties by threats and violence ; but that,
notwithstanding these circumstances of outrage and oppression, they
were happy in being able to affirm that not one individual connected
with their societies, whether free or slave, had been connected with
the late insurrection. They therefore solicited the governor's inter-
ference. On the 21st of April the governor's secretary transmitted to
them a copy of a letter from the Attorney General, stating that no
unnecessary delay had arisen, and thathemeantto institute proceedings
against the offenders at the next June grand court, but complaining that
the complainants had not bound themselves in recognizances to pro-
secute, and had not held the offenders to bail : all which, as Mr.
Duncan had said, was surely his duty, and that of the magistrates,
and not theirs (p. 153).

Mr. Duncan has certainly known slaves suffer severely from the
pecuniary distress of their masters, being driven from their grounds,
perhaps converted into jobbing gangs, or put in gaol for their debts.
But he cannot say that the slaves are the best off on the most pros-
perous properties. — Their education depends almost wholly on the
disposition of the owner or manager (p. 156).

Mr. Duncan had known the marriage of slaves opposed by their
masters in a great many instances, and this could not be ascribed to
a dislike to sectarians, but to religion itself. When he has enquired
into the objections on the part of the master or overseer, it was of this
kind : — " I will not allow you to get married, you may live as I am
living myself." This has been the general and almost only reason
assigned in all parts of the island. In 1826 two respectable slaves,
who had been living together in the usual way, applied to Mr. Duncan
to marry them privately, as their master would not consent. Mr.
Duncan refused ; but, the Negroes intreating him with tears in their
eyes, he wrote to their master (a Mr. William Rae of Kingston) a
respectful note, saying he had no intention to interfere between him
and his slaves, but intreated him to consider the case. The Negroes
took the letter, and when he read it he tore it in pieces before them
and gave no reply to it. A few owners and attorneys, but very few,
encourage marriage ; but in general they are very adverse to it, and
the general answer is, " You may live as I do" (p. 157).

on the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of the Rev. T. Cooper. 365

Our readers cannot fail to be struck with the honest boldness, and
at the same time with the clear and comprehensive views, and sound
principles which mark the evidence of these two Wesleyan mis-
sionaries, Mr. Barry and Mr. Duncan. They reflect credit on those
who appointed them ; and it must afford general satisfaction to have
such clear and indubitable indications as their evidence affords, of their
calm and dispassionate judgment, as well as of their enlightened zeal
and unshaken courage.

IV. The next witness was the Rev. Thomas Cooper, a Unitarian
minister, who had lived on the estate of Georgia, in Hanover,
belonging to Mr. Robert Hibbert. The slaves, he said, had a weekly
allowance of herrings from their master, the adults seven or eight,
and the children half. For raising food they had land on the back
part of the estate, which they cultivated on Sundays and on the 26
days allowed them by law. The time allowed, exclusive of Sundays,
was not sufficient : besides which they must attend market on the
Sunday ; so that they must labour the whole of the time allowed them,
and on Sunday also, to provide for themselves and families in any thing
like comfort, the chief part of their subsistence being derived from
their own labour. The grounds were too distant to allow of their
working upon them in the intervals of their labour during the working
days. Their surplus provisions they carried to market, to which they
had often to travel 13 or 14 miles and back. Some were nearer the
market. The least time that could enable a slave to live in comfort,
he thought, was 78 days in the year, besides what little they had from
their masters. Two days in the week, or 104 days in the year, would
have been sufficient, he thought, to support them entirely without the
master's aid. He had never known a slave to possess more than 30
or 40 dollars. If emancipated, he thought the slaves would be
better labourers and better members of society. The free were
highly respectable, as compared with the slaves. They were as much
disposed to industry as the people of this country. He saw none
idle among them. Many accumulated property, both as settlers
cultivating land, and as merchants in towns. He thought that the best
way of procuring labour from manumized slaves would be to pay a fair
rate of hire for their labour. He had seen brown men very
industrious as carpenters, &c. He had never known them work in
the field as labourers, but he had known them work as boilers. He
had no fears that the Negroes would return into the woods if emanci-
pated : that would be placing themselves voluntarily in poverty and
distress. That they would be industrious if free, he felt well per-
suaded, as he had never seen any tendency to idleness in those
that were free. If they were free and worked for wages, labour
would no longer be disgraceful, as now. The free coloured are rising
in intelligence. They send their children to schools to be educated.
Mr. Cooper had known whites living on parochial relief: he had
never seen free coloured persons in such distress as to require it. He
thought that in case of emancipatioa a few able and well disposed
men would keep a Negro village in order, as effectually as our police

366 Report of a Cotnmittee of the House of Commons

keeps London in order. A total change, however, would be required
in the magistracy. The free coloured people, he believed, were loyal.
They formed a part of the milida. He never heard any distrust
expressed of them by whites. The Negroes had no hope of liberty
when he was in the island. They submitted to their state as a great
but unavoidable evil. They seemed like persons in despair : they
had no hope whatever. They were sometimes gay, and danced and
jumped about. In general they exhibited that sort of gloom which
must arise from being oppressed without any hope of rising. He did
not recollect hearing them sing, as they returned from work in the
evening : they were generally too fatigued. They sometimes had
dances at night; but the planters disliked it, thinking it added to
their exhaustion (p. 138).

It was doubtless possible to teach the slaves to read and write, but
it was not thought consistent with the master's interest to give time
for that purpose. Even the children he taught were not kept one
day from work. As soon as they were fit to go to the field, they were
taken from him. There was a general and very powerful prejudice
against teaching them to read. He had been sent by Mr. Hibbert to
instruct his slaves, and no one actually obstructed him, but he had
no encouragement. He had never known a plantation slave who
could read. In general, at that time (1817 to 1821), the slaves had
no means whatever of religious instruction. There was no hindrance
to my going on neighbouring plantations, but the overseers did not
like that I should communicate with the slaves. The overseer of
Georgia did not directly obstruct me, but he told me he considered
the teaching the slaves a very injurious thing, and the clergyman of the
parish said I was training up generals for the black army; he did not
object to teach them the Lord's prayer, and the being of a God (p. 139).

Mr. Cooper had employed Negroes for hire as carpenters, and in
his little garden, and they worked very well. The free blacks often
complained to him of the difficulty in obtaining payment for the work
they did for white people (p. 139).

Mr. Cooper had written to Mr. Hibbert to say that, if the slaves were
taught to read, he thought they would certainly soon cease to be slaves;
that, in proportion as they were enlightened, they would be dissatisfied;
and that, when they came to see their real condition, they would them-
selves alter it. On Mr. Cooper telling Mr. Hibbert this, the latter
begged him to discontinue teaching them to read. It appeared to him
that the slaves submitted to their condition on account of their de-
graded state, but if instructed, and taught to read, and to understand
the principles of Christianity, they would at once discover the wrong
done to them, and there would be a general resistance, if no means
were taken to make them free ; and such was the universal opinion
among the planters in Jamaica, He quite agreed with them in think-
ing that knowledge diffused among the slaves by reading was wholly
incompatible with slavery. Slavery considers them as animals, goods,
and chattels. Instruction considers them as men ; and if knowledge
be widely diffused among them, and emancipation be not given them,
it will be seized by force (p. 140).

071 the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of Mr. Henry Loving. 367

On Georgia and other estates, it was the duty of the book-keeper
to go to the Negro grounds on Sunday, to see that the Negroes were
at work there. In these cases, at least, the overseers thought that it
would not do to depend wholly on the diligence and providence of the
slaves for their support, but that they must be superintended even
then.

V. Mr. Henry Loving resided at St. John's, in Antigua, and was
proprietor and editor of the Antigua Weekly Register. In 1821, by
a census, the population of the island was 1980 whites and 4066 free
coloured persons. There has been no census since, but in 1828 pains
were taken by himself and some friends of his, coloured gentlemen, to
ascertain their numbers, and they made the total 5400, being an in-
crease of 1334 in 7 years. This account excluded the intermediate
manumissions. This account was not published then : it was not
thought prudent to do so, lest the authorities should suppose they had
an improper motive in exhibiting the superior strength of the coloured
as compared with the white class. Of late years marriage has become
much more common among the free persons of colour. Formerly,
concubinage pervaded all classes, even the highest, and the force of
example carried it through every rank. This change he regarded as
owing to education and religious instruction, which of late had greatly
advanced (p. 159).

A corresponding improvement had also taken place in the slave
population. From an early period, though the Established church
was asleep, the Moravians and Wesleyans were very active in the work
of religious instruction, and very successful too. And, since the ap-
pointment of a bishop, Antigua has been greatly favoured by having
such clergymen as Archdeacon Parry and Mr, Holberton. That
gentleman is Rector of St. John's, and has endeared himself greatly
by his indefatigable exertions in diffusing religious knowledge among
the slaves. Schools have multiplied, and there is a unity of feeling
between the clergymen and the sectarians,which promises the best results.
The school under the established clergy having more ample means,
and being also zealously superintended, have flourished much, and
things proceed very cheeringly. The slaves in Antigua are the most
intelligent and best instructed in the West Indies. Formerly, few
were taught to read : now great numbers are so taught — some even
on plantations. Having known Antigua from infancy, he can say
that marriage has increased as religion has been diffused. He had
refrained from conversing with the slaves as to their feelings about
freedom, thinking it imprudent to do so ; but, though he could not
say that they were positively restless under their slavery, he thought it
impossible their minds should be enlightened, and yet remain so debas-
ed as not to desire freedom. He had never seen any tendency to tumult
in the slaves of Antigua, till the month of March, 1831, when the
Sabbath market (their only market day) having been taken away by
the legislature, and no other day substituted for it, a revolutionary
movement took place among them, which was alarming, and they
seemed determined to resist the operation of the law (p. 160).

368 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

Mr. Loving believed his newspaper was read by the slaves. He did
not know of any who were subscribers to it, but many of them are
purchased for ready money, and doubtless some by slaves.

The slaves had been in the habit, from time immemorial, of bring-
ing their articles to market on Sunday ; for they had no other time
for doing so, having no other day given them by law. But, in alleged
compliance with the wish of the Government at home, the legislature,
in 1831, abolished marketing on Sunday, and thus, as no other time
was given them in lieu of Sunday, in fact abolishing marketing alto-
gether for the slaves.

The Negroes have some ground allowed them, but no time in which
to cultivate it. They have an allowance of food by law.* Some
proprietors, however, allow their slaves occasionally a little time, but
by no fixed rule. The effect is that Sunday, instead of being re-
ligiously observed, is, in great part, devoted by the slave to labour
for himself, either on his ground, or in some other way (p. 161).

The free blacks in Antigua, of whom there are many, are on all
occasions willing to labour for hire ; and they work cheerfully as
jobbers, porters, hodmen, &c. They do not labour on plantations.
Proprietors would not permit them, lest they should poison the minds of
the slaves. Besides, no free black would willingly quit his present pur-
suits to go and labour on a plantation. Whether the present slaves,
if emancipated, would do so, is another question.

There is no doubt whatever that the Negroes have a very great re-
lish for the comforts and conveniences of life. Hence arises the very
great industry with which they use every moment of time they can
redeem from the hours of interval from labour. After a slave has done
his master's work at night, he will travel perhaps six miles with some
little article to sell to add to his little comforts. At the same time he
would not probably overwork himself to obtain mere luxuries (p. 162).

Cane-hole digging is certainly very hard work, especially under a
tropical sun, and still more as the whole gang are obliged to work
together, the weak with the strong. Many of the slaves, when eman-
cipated, might not like to engage in plantation labour, disgusted as
they are with it, and deeming it a kind of punishment ; but necessity
would compel them to accept of wages for labour. Besides which, they
are much attached to the place of their birth, or what they fondly call
their " born ground." Their early associations are formed there ; their
huts, their little fruit-trees are there, and there they have their family

* The allowance is a very scanty one indeed. It is fixed by the 1st clause of
the slave law of 1798, viz. — Weekly to every adult slave, nine pints of corn, or
beans, or oatmeal ; eight pints of wheat, or Indian corn, or Cassava flour, or seven
pints of rice, or twenty pounds of yams, with one pound and a quarter of her-
rings; and, to children, half of this allowance — the whole being diminished by
one-fifth in crop time. This is little more than half of the prison allowance to
runaways in Jamaica. By the same law, two jackets, and two pairs of trowsers, are
annually given to male slaves, and two petticoats and two wrappers to females. But
only one suit need be given, if a blanket and hat be given. The hours of labour
are the same as in Jamaica, viz. eleven hours and a half (clause 10).

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Loving. 369

ties. They are well aware, too, that they cannot get food without
labour or money ; and nothing but a hatred of their master would
induce them to leave the estates on which they now live. A part of
them might, from a sense of former hard and cruel treatment, and a
hope of bettering their condition with lighter labour, put down the
plantation hoe ; yet most of them would feel the necessity of continu-
ing to labour at such labour as they had been accustomed to. If they
could get land by renting or purchasing it, he thinks they would
prefer any other culture to that of the sugar-cane (p. 163).

Much, he thinks, might be done by the planters to lessen the ne-
cessity of manual labour on the estates, by substituting machinery
even in weeding canes. Some planters, wiser than the majority of
them, use the plough, and it might be used to spare cane-hole digging
almost entirely ; but the planters generally have a distrust, he knew
not why, in the benefits of machinery (p. 163).

Mr. Loving thinks that about nine-tenths of the slave population
of Antigua attend some place of religious worship. Religion certainly
will not teach men to take up arms and shed blood to obtain freedom;
but undoubtedly religious knowledge cannot but be attended by other
knowledge : it tends to expand the mind, and leads the slave to see
the wretchedness of his condition, as compared with that of the free.
The contrast is very great and striking, both physically and civilly,
between the slave and the free. The latter has the use of his own
faculties both of body and mind. Morally, many of the slaves are
superior to many of the free; but, in point of the comforts of life, the free
blacks in Antigua stand infinitely above the slaves. He can earn as
much in a day as the slave gets from his master's allowance in a
week. This is remarkably illustrated in the case of the African ap-
prentices emancipated in 1828, to the number of 400. • Their conduct
since proves a good test for ascertaining the fitness of the present
slaves for freedom. With a solitary exception, none of them had
committed any offence, down to July, 1831, when Mr. Loving left the
island, and they were then pursuing a course of industry for their
own support. They lived near him, and were occasionally employed
by him ; and he saw with his own eyes their industrious habits, their
desire of property, their love of fine clothes, and their efforts to imi-
tate the speech, manners, and dress of the Creoles, and in these re-
spects some of them had already surpassed the Creoles. A great part
of the laborious work of St. John's is done by them. They are fisher-
men, mariners, bargemen, hodmen, porters, domestics. Agricul-
tural labour had been forbidden to them by His Majesty's Order in
Council respecting them. But, besides this, since their liberation, no
planter likes to employ them, from a fear of their instilling into the
minds of the slaves notions of liberty. Many of the women are active
hucksters. Many of them, amounting to about twenty, have already
purchased their own houses, including three freeholds ; and only one
man and five women had been thrown on the bounty of the Crown,
and this by medical advice, they being declared unfit for labour. —
Mr. Loving had been at pains to authenticate these facts. Apprehen-
sions were entertained and loudly expressed by many in Antigua of

^ 3 c

370 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

the state of mendicity and wretchedness to which they would be re-
duced, and of the consequent burden that would fall on the public^
but proved totally groundless. There may have been among the
Africans persons of bad principles (it would be strange were it not so) ;
but their general conduct has been quiet and orderly. After all, their
greatest crime is what in a slave colony is termed their insolence ; but
those who make this charge do not consider that these Africans had
not forgotten the freedom of which they had been robbed, and had
sense enough to know that they could not be treated as slaves
with impunity. Some of their masters and mistresses attempted so to
treat them ; but as the indentures strictly forbade this, and the ap-
prentices resisted it, an incurable rankling against them has been left
in the minds of the defeated party. As for any danger from the
Africans there is absolutely none, though some jealousy may be en-
tertained of them by the slaves, who see these newly-imported persons
thriving as they do under the effects of their freedom. Some of them
have attached themselves to the Moravians, and some to the Method-
ists. He did not know that education was general among them ; — •
still they were all sufficiently enlightened to know that they ought to
conduct themselves as good members of society. Hence only one
case of petty larceny had occurred among them before July, 1831.
They were not above the slaves generally in Antigua in respect to
religious instruction and knowledge; nor do they despise the slaves.
They sometimes intermarry with them, and their social intercourse
with each other is unchecked. This adds to the danger of delaying
emancipation. When they intermarry with slaves, it is always before
sectarian ministers. The clergy of the church are forbidden by law,
under a penalty of £50, to be parties to intermarrying a free person
and a slave (p.' 165, 166).

The African apprentices were libei'ated by proclamation of the Go-
vernor. They were only required to exhibit proof that they could
maintain themselves, and having done so they .were all immediately
made free. Their certificates of freedom were printed by Mr. Loving
(p. 166).

VI. The Rev. John Thorp was Curate of St. Thomas in the East, in
Jamaica, for upwards of two years, from 1826 to 1829. He had
known many emancipated, but had never known or heard of any who
were in want, or who lived by crime, or who hired themselves to plan-
tation labour. They would regard it as a degradation to work with
slaves, and they had also employments more profitable than field
labour. There might not exist the same hindrance if slavery were
abolished. The slaves in Jamaica are fed with food cultivated by
themselves, with about six salt herrings a week to each adult, and half
to each child, from the master. They maintain their children as well as
themselves from their grounds, being allowed 26 days in the year for
that purpose ; but that is not enough ; they work also on Sundays.
The time allowed them is clearly not sufficient, as they are forced to
work on Sundays also. Indeed, he remembered one instance, on an
estate called Stanton, where some slaves who would not repair to their

071 the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Thorp. 371

grounds on Sunday were assembled in a gang, and compelled to do
so, and fed in the interim by the master. In general the slaves work
in their grounds on Sunday. The surplus they raise beyond their
wants they carry to market. The daily duration of field labour in
Jamaica is eleven hours and a half. In St. Thomas in the East they
do not usually gather grass afterwards. In crop time there is no legal
limit to their night labour. The usual time of sitting up in the night
was six hours. When the gangs were large this labour was lightened.
In general, the slaves in crop time worked 18 hours out of 24. Their
labour, during the day, appeared to him severe and exhausting
(p. 167—169).

The attendance of the slaves in his church was about 80. They
were chiefly plantation slaves. They were clean in their dress ; the
head Negroes in white jackets and trowsers,the others in Osnaburgh.
They did not wear shoes. The women generally appeared at church
in a muslin dress. He had known two or three hundred emancipated
slaves, and he knew them to be well behaved and industrious, not
shrinking from hard labour — having a great desire for the comforts of
life. He never knew them to work on sugar estates. He has known
them to raise provisions, and bring them to market. He thought that
the slaves, if emancipated, would be willing to work. His duties, as
a curate, carried him occasionally to a few estates on which religious
instruction, but only orally, was permitted by the owners. He visited
24 estates in this way, superintending some free brown catechists
selected by the rector, Mr. Trew. He never visited the slaves in their
houses. Reading was permitted to be taught on Sir George Rose's
estates at Coley and Morant, but not during the owner's time. It
was merely for half an hour during the dinner interval, twice a week.
The number taught to read was only one in 38. When he went on
the estates, he met the children at the boiling house, or at the house
of the overseer. He knew no difference in the aptness of children to
learn in Jamaica and in England : he had been much engaged in
teaching the children of the peasantry in this country, both before
and since his visit to Jamaica. The children were of the age of from
six to fourteen. Their parents had a strong desire they should be
taught. The adults did not attend on the estates, though they showed
their desire for instruction by coming to the Simday schools. The
oral mode of instruction Mr. Thorp deems quite inefficient, but, when
united with reading, the effect was good. He never had any conver-
sation with the slaves respecting freedom, having been warned by Mr.
Trew of the peculiar state of society in Jamaica. On the same
ground he abstained from questioning overseers on the subject. He
found, however, that the proceedings in this country about slavery
were well known to both slave and free — they having access to the
newspapers. Mr. Thorp, however, saw no symptoms of disaffection
when he was there, except that he heard frequent complaints of the
extent and exhaustion of labour, and of the consequent exclusion
from the means of religious instruction. Those means were at that
time more abundant than in any other parish, and there was an im-
proved moral feeling among the slaves. For, in St. Thomas in the

372 Report of a Committee of the House of Coinmons

East, not only was religious instruction to a considerable extent
afforded by the rector, but the Wesleyans had three chapels largely
attended by slaves (p. 170 — 172).

i.I''. Thorp had seen the slaves cultivating their grounds and
taking piovisions to market, and not only supporting themselves,
but their aged relations, by their own labour. He understood that
the law compelled the owner to support the aged slaves ; but cer-
tainly the law was not carried into effect ; for, in cases he knew, they
were supported wholly by the exertions of their relatives, without any
thing from the owner but their small allowance of fish, and grounds
which they Avere not able themselves to work, but which their relations
assisted in working. He could not tell that the time so occupied was
not made up by the masters, but his strong impression was that it
was not* (p. 171).

Then follows a number of questions respecting the influence of
general as distinct from religious knowledge ; on the nature of police
regulations proper to be adopted ; and on the degree in which the
emancipation under such regulations would be partial or complete :
they elicited, however, few or no material facts, and therefore may
be passed over (p. 172, 178).

VII. The Rev. Wiltshire Stanton Austin is a clergyman of the
established church. The insurrection in Demerara, in 1823, he con-
ceived, arose from the ignorance in which the slaves were kept of the
real purposes of government, and the excitement produced by their
being led to believe that privileges had been conceded to them by the
king which their masters withheld from them. Knowing, however,
as he did, the feelings and habits of the slaves, he did not imagine
that the grant of entire freedom to them would endanger the
public peace, especially if the slaves were allowed to cultivate the
land from which they now draw their food. There would be no
danger of either the young or the old suffering from want with their
fellows around them able to give assistance ; he never had seen
natural affection more strongly exhibited than among the Negroes.
Their wants indeed are few, and the soil is fertile ; but yet such is the
desire of the Negro to improve his condition, that he would make
equal exertions with the European, if his inducements to labour were
the same. A slave working for himself is a very different being from
a slave working for his master : in the former case he labours cheer-
fully and willingly. On his father's estate, in Surinam, he was in the
habit of employing the slaves to execute the work of the plantation
by task, and he found that a reasonable day's task would thus be
performed in much less time; and that when a double task was assigned
to a man and his wife, the wife was sent to attend to her domestic

* The law on this point sounds plausibly to an English ear, but in fact it goes
only to prevent masters from permitting their infirm or diseased slaves to become
mendicants, or to wander from the estates, and this obviously as a regulation of
police, to prevent the annoyance to the public, rather than to secure a provision for
the slave. See clause 17 of the Act of February 19, 1831. It does not interdict
quartering them on their relatives, or prescribe the allowances to be made them.

on the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of Rev. W. S. Austin. 373

affairs and prepare the comfortable meal, while the husband com-
pleted the task of both in the usual time allotted to labour. In
Guiana and Barbadoes the slaves at present are fed by provisions
raised by the gang as a common stock, which are dealt out to them by
the master. If the slave were allowed to feed himself, and were paid
wages for his labour, the master might be relieved from all his present
heavy expenses for food, clothing, medical charges, and the cost of
providing for children and for the aged and infirm, and the master
would be greatly benefited by the labour of the slave. It was his
father's opinion, as well as his own, that if his 250 slaves were eman-
cipated, and he could place them around him as a peasantry, paying
rent for their houses and grounds, and having also wages for all the
labour they did for him, he should be a great gainer. That he could
not carry this plan into effect was owing to a heavy mortgage on the
estate, comprising the slaves. Had he tried to treat them as free
labourers, while they were still in fact slaves, the experiment, under
existing circumstances, must have failed ; and if he had emancipated
them the mortgagees would have interfered. He had seen in Hanover
four instances of slaves emancipated and land given to them, on
which they not only raised provisions, but also canes, which were
manufactured into sugar at the master's mill for half the produce.
In short he was convinced that the emancipation of the slaves might
be made compatible with the cultivation of sugar, and probably in
equal quantities as at present, and at no greater cost. This, how-
ever, was only opinion, not experiment. The desire of the slave for
comforts and luxuries is very strong, and would induce him to engage
in constant profitable employment (p. 179 — 182).

There are in Surinam two settlements of emancipated slaves, with
which he had had much intercourse. Their employment was to cut
and saw timber into planks, and bring it down from the interior ; and
also their surplus provisions, as rice and yams, and other articles,
which they bartered for whatever they Avanted, besides accumulating
p'-operty. Mr. Austin had in his possession lOl. to keep for one
man ; and he knew a friend with whom as much as 3001. had been
deposi^^ed by various individuals belonging to those settlements, the
produce of very hard labour ; at least as hard, if not so regular, as the
cultivation of sugar. Under all the circumstances of the case, his
own clear opinion was that West Indian property would be improved,
and not iniii'"ccl, by euiancipation ; and, as for danger to the public
peacc, that, he thought, would be lessened, not increased, by it. So
strong was his belief of this, that he should not hesitate to return thither
with his family in case of emancipation, while nothing could tempt
him to return to the West Indies if slavery is to continue. He has
large reversionary interests in prospect both in Guiana and in Bar-
badoes, and though those interests are in slaves and not in land, so
that he himself might be a sufferer by the change, it was his decided
feeling that, with a view to the general interests, emancipation was
desirable (p. 183).

The free settlements spoken of are not settlements of Indians, but
of Africans who had forcibly emancipated themselves, as stated in
Stedman's History of Surinam, and with whom the Dutch had entered

374 Report of a Committee of the House of Conunons

into a treaty, which has been pretty well observed on both sides; and
instead of being a source of danger to the colony, they are now a
great protection to it. He had never heard of any want among them;
and, though he had had much intercourse with them, he had never
seen one of them intoxicated. Their settlements were not very far from
the cultivated parts of the colony, but they did not themselves raise
sugar or coffee. They are a very handsome, well-formed race, with
their features sharper and more raised than the Africans generally.
They consist of persons from different parts of the colony, escaping
from slavery, and uniting to defend their liberty. Their number is
not known ; they are jealous of enquiries on that point ; but the reports
vary from 10,000 to 20,000. They are very prolific, and their habits ■
are very favourable to their rapid increase. They speak what is
called Negro-English, a compound of English and Dutch and Afri-
can. The Bible has recently been translated into it by the Moravian
Missionaries, who have planted a mission there. The settlers allow no
other Europeans to reside among them. Mr. Austin made one or
two attempts, but did not succeed. He had, however, frequent in-
tercourse with them on his father's estate for a few days or even a
week at a time. Generally speaking, they were heathens, with the
exception of those converted by the Moravian missionaries ; but their
mission commenced only 15 years ago, and since Mr. Austin's inter-
course with them had ceased (p. 184 and 185).

Mr. Austin stated that his opinion of the safety of emancipation
was derived from his knowledge of the character of the Negroes.
They were naturally peaceable, and they would be still more so when
the great boon for which alone they had to contend was conceded to
them. Their habits of submission, and their respect for the superi-
ority of the whites, he thought would remain with them. What course
the planter might think it right to pursue he could not pretend to say,
but it would be obviously his interest to "hold out every inducement
to the emancipated slaves to continue as labourers on his estate.
As he could have no other labourers, there could be no fear of want
of employment for a time, though indeed the richness of the soil would
hold out temptations to persons emancipated in the other slave
colonies to migrate to Guiana (p. 186).

In Demerara the slaves had little opportunity of attending reli-
gious worship. There were only two clergymen and four missiona-
ries, for a population of 90,000 of all classes (p. 186).

Mr. Austin had never known slaves buy their own children's free-
dom ; but he has known parents, after being emancipated themselves,
redeem their children. As slaves, had they had the means, they
would have been most eager to do so, even in preference to redeem-
ing themselves (p. 186).

In the island of Barbadoes he had seen one or two cases of blacks
begging about the streets ; but whether they were slaves or free he
could not tell. The number, however, of such persons was extremely
small indeed ; while white beggars swarmed in many parts of the
island. He had even seen such relieved by the slaves (p. 187).

The free blacks and people of colour whom Mr. Austin had known
were remarkably industrious as mechanics, hucksters, and in a variety

on the Extinction of Slavery, — Evidence of Rev. W. S. Austin. 375

of ways, and though not indeed as field labourers for others, yet as la-
tourers on their own plots of ground. He had known Negroes of o-ood
character, both in Demerara and Barbadoes, when emancipated, con-
tinuing to live near their former master ; or some kind friend, raising
small patches of cane, which when ripe were sent to the master's mill
and manufactured for a half or a third of the produce, as might be
agreed. This, however, is much disapproved of by masters generally,
from the same feeling which, in this country, leads a farmer to disap-
prove of his labourer growing wheat or barley, suspecting that, if he
had abad crop, he would help himself from his master's field (p. 187).

In Demerara, as late as 1822, the marriage of slaves was a thing un-
heard of, being considered as incompatible with slavery. This was
his official reply to a question put by the government of that day
(see the parliamentary returns for 1823, No. 89, p. 81). Such mar-
riages were in fact discouraged by the planters and the governors.
Two persons applied to Mr. Austin to be married, and the fees of
the Secretary's office were so high that he was obliged to send them
to the Methodist Missionaries to be married. They being desirous of
marriage, and Mr. Austin refusing to admit them to the Sacrament
of the Lord's Supper till they were married, he saw no other course.
Marriage appeared to him incompatible with slavery, because, under
the law of Demerara at that time, the husband and wife might be
separated so as never to meet again. The law may now be different ;
but, previous to 1824, the husband and wife might be separated.
Marriage is now more encouraged than it was then (p. 188).

Mr. Austin said that his conduct, in respect of Missionary Smith of
Demerara, had caused a wide breach between him and his relations in
the West Indies, with allof whom, excepting his father, all intercourse
had ceased for a time. He was not without fear that the evidence
he was now giving might produce a similar result. But he was so
deeply interested in the cause of Negro emancipation that he should
be ready to promote it at any hazard or sacrifice. There was a time, he
admitted, when he felt somewhat diflferently on this subject, or rather
in his views of Christian principle and duty concerning it. As those
views became clearer, he was more fully convinced of the incompa-
tibilityof religion with slavery. His opinions had never been opposed to
those he now held ; but they were so affected by early prejudices and
views of interest, as to lead him at one time to regard Mr. Wilberforce,
for example, as a great enemy to the West Indies. Reason, experi-
ence, reflection, and better feelings had led him to a different con-
clusion now. He then thought only of the injury emancipation
might inflict on the planter ; buthe had latterly thought of the wrong
done to the unfortunate Negro and his unoffending offspring, con-
demned to perpetual bondage. Even in 1821 he had expressed
opinions in Demerara which Governor Murray considered as danger-
ous, and which proved a bar to his promotion, leading the governor
to suspect his being connected with the African Institution in this
country. The governor particularly objected to his opinions respecting
the education of the slaves, and said he would banish any missionary
who should attempt it. To these views, and to his advocacy of the

376 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

missionary Smith, he conceived he owed the hostility of the Governor,
and his loss of preferment to the chaplainship of the colony on the
resignation of Mr. Strahan (p. 189, 190^.

Neither in Guiana, nor in Barbadoes, did the law require the owner
to allot land to the Negroes ; and, in point of fact, it was not the
practice generally to do so, though in the former it may require the
owner to provide a sufficiency of food for his slaves. He was cer-
tainly not aware that either the law or the practice of Demerara was
to allotland to the slaves. Being asked whether he knew the estates of
La Belle Alliance, and the Land of Plenty, he said that he knew them ;
they belonged to two uncles of his, and that the slaves of the latter
were most kindly treated ; but he was not aware, nor did he believe,
that on those estates grounds were allotted to the slaves ; neither did
he know that from the slaves on those two estates any thing was
brought to the market in George Town, but pigs and poultry oc-
casionally. Being further asked whether he meant to state that it
was not a fact that the market of George Town was supplied by pro-
visions brought thither by the Negroes, he replied that some planters,
one of them a friend of his own, sent its main supply to that market ;
that the Negroes certainly had it in their power to carry to market,
from Sunday to Sunday, any trifle they might have, but, generally
speaking, it was only fowls or pork. The Negroes from time to time
had Indian cona given them by their masters, and might possibly
grow a little themselves, as Indian corn was of particularly easy
growth, and cheap and abundant, and with that poultry are fed. The
plantain too, at some seasons of the year, abounded, and, when ripe,
is a very nutritious food for pigs as well as poultry ; but the slaves
had not, as far as he knew, grounds of their own. They were, it is
true, abundantly supplied with plantains, but they had little else in
the way of food (p. 191).

When he knew the free Negroes who had emancipated themselves, and
were placed in back settlements in Surinam, he found no religion among
them, and at that time religion occupied so little of his own thoughts
that he should never have thought of questioning them about it. He
only knew they were sober. He never saw any drunkenness among
them ; but, among the slaves, drunkenness was common when they
could obtain spirits. The free Negroes were also very punctual in all
their engagements with himself. The free Negroes were also as far
beyond the slaves in appearance, and in their manners and habits, as
the gentlemen of England are above the peasantry (p. 192).

Frequent attempts had been made at education, and by himself
among others, and they were successful till interrupted by the insur-
rection. He had commenced his own contrary to the wishes of the
Governor, after having been deterred for some time by the fear of
losing the prospect of preferment held out to him. After many con-
flicts with himself, he had at length opened a large Sunday school,
which, down to the time of the insurrection, interested him much; but
whether after he was driven from Demerara his successor continued ithe
could not tell. The children he found very apt to learn, and very eager
for knowledge. There was no provision made by law, either for the

on the extinction of Slavery, — Evidence of Rev. W. S. Austin. 377

education or for tlie religious instruction of the slaves ; but the mis-
sionaries, and also he himself, were permitted to instruct the slaves in
religion, but not on the plantations. A few weeks before he quitted
Demerara, two clergymen arrived there with that object in view, but
before that nothing had been done under the authority of Government
nor was he aware whether oral instruction only was meant, or any
other instruction (p. 192).

The Negroes throughout Guiana were, generally speaking, stronger
and healthier on cotton than on coffee estates, and on coffee than on
sugar estates. There are, in Demerara, many free coloured persons.
They are in very good condition, many of them rich, and none poor.
As president of the board of the poor's fund, he was called to inves-
tigate all cases of distress. He remembers one or two cases where
the cast off mistresses of white men were reduced to great distress,
but, with the exception of one or two other individuals in a wretched
state of disease, he knew of no free Negroes who were claimants on
this fund. The chief claimants were Barbadian whites of a very low
description, and other white immigrants v/ho had been unsuccessful
in their speculations (p. 192, 193).

It was in consequence of his experience of the working of slavery
that his opinions upon it underwent a change. By the time he had
reached the age of thirty, he thought somewhat more seriously on the
subject, and began to shake off the prejudices which had grown with
his growth. He left Surinam because he was disgusted with the
whole system. There was one thing which peculiarly disgusted and
pained him, and which led to a separation, not in affection, but in
labours, between his father and himself, and that was the flogging of
women. He was so disgusted with that and some other points, that he
gave up all connection with the estate. In Surinam, the Negroes
were less heavily tasked than in the English colonies, but were more
severely treated than in the latter. In Surinam, the Moravians are
admitted on a few estates, and among them on his father's. There is
no protector of slaves in Surinam; the slaves, therefore, are more
at the mercy of the planters than they are in the English crown
colonies since the appointment of protectors there. There is, he
believes, no protector of slaves in Barbadoes (p. 193, 194).

Mr. Austin said that he had no connection with the Anti-Slavery
Society. He had come as a witness on this occasion at the instance
of a friend, Mr. Z. Macaulay.

He thought a more gradual plan of emancipation would meet the
views of the planters better than one that was immediate ; and, feel-
ing interested himself in West India property, he should, on the whole,
prefer the former to the latter ; but he had no fear that immediate
emancipation would affect the public peace in any way. As for the
slave, he viewed him as at this inoment fit for emancipation. He should
think of any modified plan, only in the hope of reconciling conflicting
interests. Of course, if education went on, each day would render
the slave more fit for it. All such plans as freeing the children and
apprenticing them to their masters were liable to great and numerous
objections, both as respects the master and the slave, and they would

378 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

not satisfy the slaves generally. Notwithstanding the great facility
of acquiring uncleared land in Demerara, the slave, he thought, would
prefer land already laid out, as the most laborious work is that of
felling trees, laying out new land, and trenching it. The Governor
could undoubtedly grant the slaves new land, but it would be easier
for the slaves to cultivate land already in cultivation. The owner of
an estate might let it out in portions to the slaves; and, as slaves are
fond of the spot where they have lived, they would prefer to buy or
rent land of their masters than to go and plant themselves in new
situations (p. 192, 193).

VIII. Vice Admiral the Hon. Charles Fleming thought the
slaves greatly improved since he had first been among them. He did
not regard them as at all deficient in natural capacity. If they were
at once emancipated, he had no doubt, from what he had seen in
Cuba, Caraccas, Bahamas, and Trinidad, they would not only maintain
themselves, but cultivate the land as well as it is now. The slaves
are not industrious except when they work for themselves, but when
they do they are very industrious. He has had slaves who worked for
hire most industriously ; but, when working under overseers, they did
as little as they could. He did not think that in Trinidad and the
Bahamas the slaves were much dissatisfied, but in Jamaica they were
generally much dissatisfied ; and, during all the time he was there, he
was in fear lest all that has since occurred should happen there, and he
feared the same still. In the Bahamas there are no sugar planta-
tions, and the slaves are not worked in gangs, and there slavery is as
light as it can well be. Still, even there, they ardently desire freedom,
and are availing themselves of the law for compulsory manumission
as much as they can. In Trinidad, the slaves appeared better treated
and better fed, and, being mostly Catholics, the priests have a great in-
fluence over them and keep them quiet. Trinidad is under the ex-
cellent laws of Old Spain, and the slaves have efficient protection
frorn the slave protector. In Jamaica, the slaves have no protector,
and the magistrates, generally, neglect their duty. If the hope of
emancipation were to be extinguished, they would not remain for a
moment in hopeless slavery. The only reason they are now tranquil
is the hope of emancipation by the Government. No island he had
visited would be tranquil for a moment if that hope was cut off. If
that hope be withdrawn, insurrection will soon take place. His reason
for forming this opinion is the great anxiety they show to learn what
is going on in England for their own emancipation, and that of their
children. In the island of Jamaica, particularly, this feeling is very
strong. He resided lately for eight or ten months in Jamaica, and,
during that time, he was much in the interior of the island, and lived on
a coffee estate, and near a sugar estate, on the Port Royal mountains ;
and, in going to his house and coming from it, he had to pass through
the sugar estates of the Duke of Buckingham, Mr. Wildman, and
others. He had frequently been on these and other estates, seven or
eight in all. At the place, too, where he lived, called Claremont, he
had much intercourse with the free blacks, the whole district around

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Admiral Fleming . 379

being peopled with them and the free browns, who lived in great com-
fort with their families, having pieces of land of their own which they
cultivated themselves. They also reared vegetables, and fowls, and
pigs, and cultivated the sugar cane, and coffee, and all kinds of Indian
corn, which they sold in Kingston market. Some of them had slaves
of their own. Persons of high naval and military rank have little
access to the interior of plantations, though they are always hospitably
received. They would be expected, in most cases, to give notice of
an intended visit, but, on some estates, there would be no objection
made. He had observed no alteration in the dress of the slaves on
those occasions. He had himself been turned off estates in Jamaica,
but had visited others and gone through them without giving notice.
He went thither last in 1827, and left it in 1830. The admiral's re-
gular residence was at a pen two miles from Kingston. But, when
the rains set in, he was obliged to quit it, and went to reside in the
mountains, about 13 miles off. He lived ashore during his being in
command there more than six months at one time, and, in all, about
ten months. He had not only passed constantly to and from his re-
sidence to Kingston, Port Royal, and the admiral's pen, during that
time, but travelled into St. David's, about 30 miles, three or four times.
He was also at Stoney Hill, 11 miles in another direction. He went
on several estates to observe the management, particularly Mr. Wild-
man's estate of Papine, which was very differently managed from the
others. Former admirals resided still more on shore than he did.
Admiral Halsted lived on shore the whole time. He was turned away
once, but by mistake, from the Duke of Buckingham's estate, and
also from Lord Claremont's, near Stoney Hill. He thought he had
seen enough, during his last visit, to form a sound opinion of the in-
creased intelligence among the slaves, as compared with their former
state. They are certainly now not inferior to the white people in in-
tellect. He knew that reading, and listening to works read, were
common among the slaves in Jamaica. He had seen a person reading
the Gazette to a gang of slaves.

The Admiral was asked " Was that at Mr. Wildman's ?" He an-
swered it was a jobbing gang, belonging to Mr. Sinclair. The slaves
generally are strongly excited to acquire knowledge, and their know-
ledge of what passes here and in Jamaica must put an end to slavery
soon. He had viewed insurrection as probable all the time he was in
Jamaica, and its occurrence v/as no surprise to him. The debates in
the House of Commons and in the local legislatures are quickly known.
V/hen the slave law of 1829 was disallowed, the fact was instantly
known to the slaves. It was even known the next day at thirty miles
from Spanish Town ; and he found it was known at his mountain
when he went up, as well as all the way up to it; He was assured
that, by means of hawkers and pedlars, news were conveyed to the
whole of the interior, and publications diffused in a very short time.
He did not believe that there had been any amelioration of the state
of the slaves with respect to labour, punishment, &c., while their in-
telligence \Vas thus increasing. The instrument carried in the field by
the driver is called a cart-whip ; he had never heard it called by any

380 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

other name. It differs from a waggoner's whip : it is a cart-whip.
It is laid aside on some estates, but not generally. He never heard
a doubt till now of its being called a cart-whip. He had extensive
intercourse with persons of all classes in Jamaica, and the driver's
whip was always spoken of by them as a cart-whip. He had now
one in his possession bought from the driver of a jobbing gang, who
was using it in the field at the time (p. 198 — 201).

The Admiral had been more in Cuba and knew more of it than of
Jamaica. The number of free people there is very great. The whites
there are about 380,000, the free coloured 136,000 to 150,000, the
slaves 200,000 or 220,000. This he drew from public documents ; but
the returns are somewhat confused. They are made up by the priests
in the different parishes. The free people generally are in good con-
dition in Cuba; many of the browns, and of the blacks too, are very rich.
He had never heard in Cuba any complaints of a want of industryinthe
freed classes. A great many of them are employed in cultivating sugar
in Cuba. Even some whites work in the field in Cuba, Avho come from
the Canaries, and manage all the indigo culture. He had himself seen
the free people digging carie-holes, and some of them work their whole
estate without slaves, growing the canes, and selling them to persons
who boil the juice. He could not tell how many were so employed in
Cuba ; the number was considerable ; and when they were deficient in
hands at any time on such sugar plantations they hired additional la-
bourers, at two pisettas,or 18d., to half a dollar a day, sometimes more,
usually paid in coin, but sometimes in goods. Some free persons manu-
facture their own canes, but more frequently sell them, as mills and boil-
ers are expensive, to richer persons near them. They get back a certain
portion in a manufactured state. The soil is richer than in our colonies.*
He knew one man who sold his canes in this way who had 45 acres in
cane, all wrought by free labour. The estates are more extensive in
Cuba than Jamaica, and portions of them are let off to free people.
It was a continual subject of dispute with many intelligent persons
in Cuba whether free labour or slave labour was cheapest. The English
in general whom I met there thought slave labour the cheapest. One
party argued that if the slave trade were stopped they could not culti-
vate the island. Another party held that they could. Many Cubans
are against importing Negroes; as the new Negro is always found
to take part with the Government, being influenced by the priests so
to do ; and the Government holds the slaves and free blacks over the
whites as a rod to keep them in order. This alone has prevented the
independence of Cuba, as of the other Spanish colonies. The domestic
slaves in Cuba are equal in intelligence to those of Jamaica ; the
field slaves inferior : but in Cuba neither can read except some do-
mestics. The same danger of insurrection certainly does not exist

* So that now the secret of cheap sugar hi Cuba is out. It is free labour;
and all the minute calculations of Mr. Keith Douglas and Mr. M'Donnell, et hoc
geiins omne, may be given to the winds as waste paper. See the massy labours
of the Committee on West India: distress reviewed in No. 97, of the Reporter.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Admiral Flemi?ig. 381

there as in Jamaica. There is little discontent among the slaves in
Cuba. They can all obtain legal or compulsory manumission if they
can make up the means, and thus free themselves, their wives, and
children. They work generally by piece-work, and are not driven
except on some estates held by Englishmen and Americans. The
Spaniards of Cuba never drive. Freedom is never placed beyond the
reach of any slaves in Cuba, and they may always change their mas-
ter, even if they cannot pay their price, provided another is willing to
buy them at their value ; so that if a slave is valued at 200 dollars,
and B will pay the money, the slave may olDlige A to sell him to B,
The Admiral sent home all these regulations to Sir G. Murray, and
they must now be in the Colonial Office. There is a compulsory ma-
numission law in Cuba, and a tariff fixing prices. He could not find
the law and tariff in Trinidad ; but he and General Grant found it at
the Caraccas.* The existence of this compulsory manumission in
Cuba is a great cause of the difference of feeling among the creole
slaves in Cuba and Jamaica. The new Negroes in Cuba, as formerly
in Jamaica, are comparatively indifferent about the question of free-
dom. Accordingly the newly-imported Africans are not permitted to
be worked with the Creoles in Cuba, as they require a stricter disci-
pline than the Creoles. The Creoles would not like to be put on the
same footing with new Negroes. The Creoles are both better behaved
and better treated. The Spanish planters take pains to inculcate re-
ligion on their slaves ; the women teach the children born on the es-
tates, and the priests attend every estate. The Catholic slaves are
more submissive than those in the English colonies, but he does not
know what their religious state is in our colonies, but he believes
very defective. He has seen the annual returns of manumissions in
Cuba ; they are very considerable, but he is not in possession of
them. They may be got either through the Colonial Office, or from
the commissioners of the mixed Commission Court at the Havannah.
The slaves in Cuba, working generally by task-work, have more time
to work out their freedom. Besides they have the whole of their Sa-
turdays, and all their saints' days, f and they work much fewer days for
their masters than in the English colonies. And this applies not to
Cuba only, but to the Caraccas. Task -work prevails on the sugar
estates not only in Cuba but Caraccas. He had been frequently in
Cuba from 1827 to 1830, and on many estates. He had liberated
4000 slaves in that time from Spanish slave-ships. Holding rank in
the Spanish navy, and speaking freely the Spanish language, he had

* But how came it that these documents, transmitted by Admiral Fleming
to Sir G. Murray, were not laid before that Committee? They would have
saved a world of trouble, and no small expenditure in paper and press-work.
Is there not some ground to suspect treachery in some ofour former public func-
tionaries in Trinidad, in having kept out of view these mostimportant documents?
Some enquiry into the matter seems to be imperatively called for, and we trust
will be instituted.

t The saints' days are 30 ; added to the Saturdays they make 82, and to the
Sundays 134. — See Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 37, vol. ii. p. 233.

382 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

peculiar facilities of communication. He was treated there with great
attention and hospitality. Free labour he thinks has increased in
Cuba. He does not think that slaves are cheaper in Cuba than in
Jamaica. The price of a good new slave in Cuba is 250 dollars, or
about £55 sterling. He paid £70 currency, or £50 sterling, for a
good slave in Jamaica (p. 201 — 205).

An estate in Cuba, making 200 hogsheads of sugar, has about 200
slaves, besides carters and others, who are usually free. ■ The slave trade
in Cuba, he believes, is chiefly carried on by foreigners and foreign ca-
pital, as Spanish capital employed in it would be confiscated (p. 205).

The moral habits of the white people of the interior of Cuba are
much superior to the same class in Jamaica. In Cuba a great many
people live quietly with their families, cultivating their lands, and
they are very respectable indeed. In the towns on the coast their
habits seem much the same as in Jamaica (p. 205).

The importation of slaves into Cuba is chiefly not by Cubans, but
by foreign adventurers and by Spaniards expelled from South Ame-
rica. Most of the old proprietors in Cuba will not purchase Africans.
A few purchase them ; but rarely. They are chiefly for new estates.

The law and tariff connected with manumissions bear, he thinks, the
date of 1789. it is a written law, first published, he believes, at St,
Domingo after the only insurrection that had occurred in a Spanish
colony in the time of Ferdinand the Fourth :* he sent a copy to
Sir G. Murray, and one to General Grant. It is one of the laws of
the Indies, promulgated by the King of Spain. By this law the slave
is entitled to purchase a day at a time, paying the proportion of his
price to the protector. His holidays or other days are never taken from
him. He is fully protected, and has easy means of redress through
the sindico or protector, and the priest. The bishops in Cuba, of
whom he knew two, are very vigilant on this point. The slave con-
fesses to the priest, and has free access to him on every plantation in
Cuba. This is a great protection, and gives him an opportunity of stat-
ing his grievances. The priest was always looked to by the slaves in
South America as their protector as well as the sindico. There is no
such practice in Jamaica. Some Spaniards refused to buy new slaves
from not liking to mix them with their Creoles ; others, even the first
merchants, from conscience, thinking it was a disgraceful transaction,
and illegal. Many of them are a high-minded people. The English
he saw at the Havannah, and who thought that buying new slaves
was the cheapest, were slave-holders from the West Indies. English
officers were generally of a different opinion. He was fully convinced
that there would be no more difficulty in the English colonies as to
free labour than in Cuba, Caraccas, and Hayti, and in the Bahamas
and Trinidad. On the sugar estates in Cuba there are more slaves
than free ; but in the interior, where corn is grown and cattle reared,
the free labourers are more than the slaves. If slavery were abolished
by law in Cuba to-morrow, he does not believe the least confusion
would ensue, or that one sugar estate would be thrown out ofcultiva-

* It was probably a republication, called for by the insurrection.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Admiral Fleming. 383

tion. There is no dislike in Cuba to employ free people in cultivat-
ing sugar, as in the English colonies. In estimating the profit of
slave labour in Cuba the holidays must of course be. taken into ac-
count : some owners give their slaves, besides these, two or three hours
for going to mass (p. 207).

When Admiral Fleming first visited the Caraccas, in 1828, the
slaves were all free after a certain age, females at twelve and males
at fourteen. Many of the old Negroes were not free, but greater
facilities were given them to obtain their freedom than even under the
Spanish law. Funds were created for freeing them gradually. He
never saw, during the three times he visited Caraccas, any confusion
or disorder from this cause. And yet sugar was cultivated there and
exported to a considerable extent. In all parts of the Caraccas sugar
was grown and exported largely, though the export duty was liigh.
There the free and the slaves worked promiscuously on the same
sugar plantations. Cane-holing is carried on there, but the soil is
rich and the canes seldom require to be renewed. Still he had seen
cane-hole digging, and free blacks were employed in it on their own ac-
count. There the wages wereninepence a day andfood. In the Caraccas
he had heard the question of free and slave labour often discussed. The
Spaniards and Columbians were generally for free labour ; the Ameri-
cans and English for slavery. The Spaniards and Columbians were
in favour of freeing them all, even on the score of profit. The Mar-
quis del Taro, a cousin of Bolivar, had immense estates ; but his great
number of slaves were worked as free labourers. Admiral F. had
great facilities of intercourse with all of condition there. He was
four months there at one time, and went 200 or 300 miles up the
country. He availed himself of his facilities, and it was highly inter-
esting to him to see a people newly emancipatedj both from European
oppression and from slavery, in their progress of becoming free.
His opinion is, that the blacks in Caraccas are making rapid progress
in civilization. Many schools are established, of which they
anxiously avail themselves. Many are learning trades,- and the
desire of knowledge is great among them. They maintain themselves
perfectly well without aid, either from their former masters or from
government. The law of manumission was suddenly enacted by a decree
of Congress, under Bolivar, Bolivar had previously freed his own slaves,-
and many of the principal people had done the same. There was no
interference with the rights of landed property. Many of the pro-
prietors of the soil, who had before wrought with slaves, cultivated it
at once by free labour. No convulsion whatever was produced.
A time was fixed when slavery should wholly cease. He did not re-
collect the year. It had not ceased when he was last in Caraccas^
but it was gradually declining, and would be extinguished very shortly.
There were not above a fourth ofthe slaves remaining then of those
who were in slavery at the time of Bolivar's decree. He saw no traces
of receding cultivation. It was even making a rapid progress, though
Caraccas had been the seat of war, and therefore had suffered greatly.
During his second visit, he found the culture of wheat advancing
rapidly, though it had not been cultivated formerly. American wheat

384 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

is now no longer imported. Every bjody agreed that the culture had
much increased. When I visited the Caraccas the second time, the im-
provement was manifest and rapid. There had been a year and a half
of peace ; party spirit had evaporated, and confidence was established.
They were improving rapidly in agriculture and the arts. The revolu-
tion has tended to obliterate distinctions of colour ; but the political
disturbances had certainly retarded improvement, great numbers being
employed in the armies. He had himself seen slaves and free blacks
working together in the same field in the Caraccas. Field labour was no
longer viewed as degrading there. The free might have obtained land
to cultivate for themselves, on higher and colder regions, but they
seemed to like the low warm country the best, and therefore readily
continued to work on the established plantations. They certainly
were not driven to sugar planting by necessity ; they might have
pursued other means of living. They might have got lands easily in
the interior. They continued, however, to labour voluntarily and
cheerfully on the sugar estates, and at much the same rate of wages as on
other estates. The English who had estates there objected to em-
ploy the free blacks. They said they were not accustomed to that mode
of working. He only knew, however, three Englishmen having estates
there (p. 208—210).

General Peyango was a perfectly black man ; but he was a well in-
formed, a very well educated person, well read in Spanish history,
and altogether an extraordinary man. Many English oflftcers were
serving under him. He knew many other black officers of very con-
siderable acquirements in the Caraccas, and also in Cuba, and a black
priest born in the Cape de Verds, a very intelligent man (p. 210).

The admiral referred for the particulars of the decrees about free- .
dom, and the progress of manumissions, to the Caraccas laws and the
Caraccas Gazettes, which may easily be obtained. There are commis-
sions for freeing slaves, and the names of those freed are regularly
inserted in the Gazettes. He repeated, confidently, that he had seen
free persons labouring with slaves on sugar estates, not to the same
extent as on other estates, for there was not so much of sugar raised as
of other articles, as wheat, potatoes, cocoa, coffee, indigo, &g. There is
no more indisposition to grow sugar than other articles, but, in point
of fact, he believed the majority of sugar cultivators were slaves, al-
though he had no accurate data on which to, rest. He was assured that
the cultivation of sugar had increased in the Caraccas and Margarita.
He could not tell how many were employed in sugar culture ; but the
free population greatly exceeded, on the whole, the slaves. At the time
emancipation was first declared, the numbers were about equal in the
Caraccas. The slaves are widely scattered on estates over the country.
They were not in huts as ours, but in a large square called Reparti-
mento, where there is a chapel and an hospital, and a communication
with the owner's house. A great many had entered the army, and
thus became free. The time of the emancipation, he thinks, was
1821. It was not a time of civil commotion, but of tranquillity. The
free blacks were numerous in town, and employed themselves indus-
triously as other free persons. The blacks had not had much educa-

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Admiral Fleming. 385

tion, except the young, who are now in the schools. They were sup-
posed, generally, to have embraced the Catholic religion. Slaves not
taught were liable to be confiscated to the king. They could all,
therefore, say their prayers and their confession of faith. They were
all sufficiently instructed for that. Before the late insurrection, he
should have had no fear of the same system of emancipation in Ja-
maica as in the Caraccas. Now, he should doubt whether it would be
sufficient. They had not the excitement of the press in the Caraccas ;
but they had the excitement of civil war, in which they took part.
The civil war was between two parties in the State, but the slaves ex-
pected that if the liberal party succeeded they would be free (p. 211,
212).

Admiral Fleming had been in Hayti, in 1828 and 1829, for a short
time. He had been there before, when the insurrection first broke
out. In 1827 he understood that labourers were scarce. He did not
hear that in 1829, and the people seemed then industrious. They
worked for wages, and were paid in kind — he did not know how much
exactly ; — the law said a certain proportion of the produce. He never
saw any compulsion used. He was told that vagrants and deserters
worked by compulsion, but he did not see any himself. He had
never heard of any working under the lash. The lash was prohibited by
law. TheHaytians appeared tohim the happiest, best fed, and mostcom-
fortable Negroes he had ever seen ; better off even than in the Caraccas ;
infinitely better than in Jamaica : there was no comparison between
them. He could not speak positively of the increase of the Haytian
population since 1804, but he believed it had trebled since that time.
His belief, from the best testimony he could collect, was that it had
increased threefold since 1804. This differed from Consul -Mac
Kenzie's report, but he believed it to be correct. They now fed
themselves, and they exported provisions, which neither French nor
Spaniards had ever done before. He did not recollect what was the
population in 1804, but there were official documents on the subject.
He had been in Hayti in 1797, when war was raging, and in 1828, and
1 829, when things were quite tranquil. Things were greatly improved in
the interval, as to the condition of the Negroes; for in 1828 tranquillity
had prevailed for some years. There were no beggars in Hayti, and
few in Jamaica. He saw a sugar estate near Cape Haytian, formerly
Cape Francais, general Bourlon's, extremely well cultivated, and in
beautiful order. It was wrought by blacks, all free. It was very
fine land, and had not been replanted a long time. A new planta-
tion was forming on the opposite side of the road. The rate of
wages was a franc, or 9d. a day, with victuals, and two francs
without. Their victuals were very superior to those of Jamaica ; con-
sisting chiefly of meat, cattle being very cheap. The highest contract of
beef in Hayti was 2d. In Jamaica it was I2d. He had no means of
knowing the state of religion in Hayti, but all the people seemed to go
to mass. He had no means of observing their moral conduct, but mar-
riage existed among them. Promiscuous intercourse also, he believed,
prevailed ; but two Spanish priests with whom he had conversed said
that things were improving:, and that they believed marriage would

3 K

386 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

become general. It was so now among the principal people. But,
Avhether iiiarried or not, the children were well taken care of, and they
lived together in families. It was not easy to distinguish them in their
habits from married people. Though the ceremony might not have been
performed, the tie seemed to be practically binding. They generally
lived one man with one woman. The parents do provide for the
children. He saw no marks of destitution any where. The country
seemed improving, and trade increasing between his two visits
(p. 212, 214).

The estate the admiral visited near the Cape was large. It was
calculated to make 300 hogsheads of sugar. The whole was culti-
vated with plantains, and Indian corn or manioc intermixed. It
was beautifully laid out, and as well managed as any estate he had
seen in the West Indies. He was told that this estate, though so
good, was inferior in fertility to others in the interior. The culture
of sugar, however, was comparatively not much followed in Hayti.
Their means of properly manufacturing it are indifferent, and they
have not capital to set up sugar works again. The reasons assigned
were the entire destruction of the former works, and the want of
capital to re-erect them. They had also other and more urgent and,
profitable things to attend to. The Haytian government too seemed to
think that they might excite jealousies in other countries if they went
much on sugar. He had never heard the unwillingness of the Negroes
to engage in it assigned as a cause : they were very ready to work
if paid. Nor had he heard the high rate of wages assigned as a
cause : he believed sugar could be made cheaper in Hayti than in
our islands, if the Haytian government did not discourage it. The
insecurity of the country is still a hindrance to expensive works.
They are hardly out of their revolutionary state. When he was there,
Spain had been making a claim on them for the Spanish part, and
they were raising a large army to resist it. This occupied their
attention and discouraged such undertakings. His official corre-
spondence, as admiral, with the Haytian government made him attri-
bute much efficiency to it, and it bore very strong marks of civili-
zation. There was a much better police in Hayti than in the New
South American States ; the communication through the country was
more rapid ; the roads were much better ; one had been cut from
Port au Prince to Cape Haytian that would do honour to any
government. A regular post was established. He had sent regular
couriers from Cape Nicolas Mole to Port au Prince, a distance of 80
leagues. The government is one quite worthy of a civilized people.
The government still feared an attack from France, even during his last
visit ; and this had the effect of retarding their progress. The convention
with France had not been fulfilled. Only one instalment of the money
stipulated to be paid had been paid. Hence partly their apprehen-
sions. The people were very much against paying, and blamed the
government much for agreeing to pay it. The Negroes of Hayti are
certainly richer and happier and in a better condition than any he
had ever seen elsewhere. They were all working in the fields when
foe was there. He rode about very much. He did not think any acts

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evideiice of Admiral Fleming. 387

of oppression were practised on the people of Hayti by the govern-
ment (p. 213— 216).

The emancipation of the slaves in the Caraccas took place, the
admiral thinks, in 1821. Bolivar had taken refuge in Hayti some
time before, for which benefit the Haytian government stipulated
that he should emancipate his slaves, and he did so (p. 216).

He had frequently visited the Bahamas when last in the West
Indies. There are more slaves there than free. Sugar is grown in
small quantities both by slaves and fi-ee, but little or none is manu-
factured. Both are employed in growing provisions, fishing, and
taking care of cattle, and in looking after wrecks. They are all very
orderly, and no difficulty is found in preserving order. The propor-
tion of free blacks and persons of colour is greater than in Jamaica: it
is about one third. The liberated Africans there seem equally
civilized with the Creole slaves. The African apprentices, knowing
they are to be free after a certain time, intermarry with free blacks,
and they become civilized by this intercourse in a very short time
indeed. In seven years they are quite equal to any of the creole
slaves in our islands. They are all married. Concubinage is not per-
mitted them. There are missionaries there who instruct them, and they
are all required to go to divine worship. They are very industrious.
They cultivate their own grounds, and also work for wages. The
rate of wages in the Bahamas is about a dollar a day; but they
do not get much employment, as it is only at a particular time of the
year that they are wanted. The wages are high because there is not
regular employment but at particular seasons. If there were regular
employmient they would take less. They all have land which they
cultivate, selling the produce they do not want. They get nothing
from government but the land. The free blacks, as well as the
slaves, in the Bahamas, are much more moral than in any other colony
except Bermuda. In Bermuda and Bahamas there is no sugar cul-
tivation, and there certainly the black population, both slave and free,
are much more moral than in any other island he had visited. There
are more pains taken with them. Almost all are Christians. They
go regularly to places of worship. They are married and much ,
better treated. The proprietors are smaller proprietors, who live
almost with the slaves, and are very kind to them. The slaves in the
Bahamas and Bermuda are quite adifFerentrace ; they speak better Eng-
lish and are much m.ore intelligent than those elsewhere. He had no
hesitation in asserting that the best effect was produced by religious
knowledge on their morals, manners, and civilization ; and this he
asserted on his own actual knowledge of the fact. The liberated
Africans become, before their apprenticeships expire, as civilized as
those born and bred there. He only knew of one of these Africans
being punished all the time he was in the Bahamas. He lived fre-
quently on shore there, and he could himself observe their great
advance in civilization. He found in every cottage beds, and cooking
utensils of all kinds. Their huts were better than in the other islands,
■perhaps because more exposed to hurricanes. They had comforts
far beyond the mere necessaries of life. They showed not the slightest
disposition to return to the habits of savage life. On the contrary,

388 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

in a tour he had made with the governor through the islands, he
found that they all wished to acquire property ; that many had
acquired property; that their children were well taken care of;
that they were well clothed, and the women dressed out in
unnecessary finery. He had seen no exceptions to the general
industry but in two old men, who could read Arabic, and were
looked on as priests, and who, besides doing something for them-
selves, had also supplies from the others, who looked to them
with veneration as old men. — He saw in Lane Island a man who
came up and complained to Governor Grant of his having been kept
longer than his apprenticeship. His master, being sent for, stated
that he had kept him because he had five children, and, his wife
having died, he could not maintain them if he were free. The man
answered, '' If with two hands I can feed them in three days out of
fourteen, why should I not feed them all in ten days, go to market on
Saturday, and to church on Sunday?" The governor freed him. Admiral
F. saw him next year, on the land that had been allotted to him ; he
was in perfect comfort ; his land was well cultivated, and his children
were all taught to read. The blacks have taken advantage of the
manumission law which exists in Bahamas ; and then they either hire
themselves to work, or rent land from the owners. The value of
slaves, however, is not fixed in the Bahamas ; there is no tariff".
The exports from the Bahamas are salt, cotton, onions, pine-
apples to the United States, platt, salt-fish, logwood, fustic, and other
woods. In all the labours of the Bahamas the free and the slaves are
intermixed, and especially in cutting wood, which is the hardest work
of all (p. 217— 219).

He had often heard in Jamaica of transferring their allegiance
to America, and it had a considerable effect in adding to the discon-
tent of the slaves. He had heard this said in the presence of the slaves,
particularly on the occasion of the disallowed slave-law of 1826, and
on other occasions, and he then observed that they must first get
the consent of the 300,000 slaves, which would be very difficult.
There were slaves present at the time. He had even heard the same
language used at his own table. " The conduct of the government,"
it was said, " would make the star-spangled baianer be hailed with
delight in Jamaica." One gentleman, on taking leave of him, said
he perhaps should never visit the island again as a British Colony.
That this conversation produced discontent among the slaves, he had
learnt from the slaves themselves. They spoke to him frequently of it
in the conversations he had with them at different times. They often
asked him if it was true that the island was to be given up to the
Americans. One man, who asked him the question, was Frank, a
slave belonging to Prospect, v/ho was a very intelligent person. — He
had lived little with the white inhabitants oi Jamaica generally ;
but some were always v/itli him or he with them. He was much with
Sir John Keane, who then lived in Kingston. He conversed much
with the slaves, in going about, as he would have done with the pea-
santry in this country. Being asked whether he had not gone out
with strong opinions previously formed, he said, No, till he had
returned the last time to Jamaica, v/hen he found that little or no

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Admiral Fleming, 389

improvement had taken place. He was very much struck with the
difference between the slaves of the Bahamas and those of Jamaica.
The condition of the former was very superior. At the same time, on
many estates in Jamaica, the slaves were well clothed, fed, and used;
but that was by no means the case throughout the island. They were
not improved to the extent he had expected since 1797. He
had been in the Negro houses of sugar estates in Jamaica : some of
them had the appearance of comfort. He thought the slaves had much
more cause to be discontented in Jamaica than in Trinidad. They are
not so effectually protected in the former as the latter, from harsh
treatment. On estates where the proprietor resides, and on some
others, they are well treated ; but attorneys and receivers are often
very oppressive. He thought that a general emancipation would
now be less dangerous than no emancipation, yet more difficult than
it would have been before the late insurrection. But any plan short
of immediate emancipation, like that in Columbia, which should give
protection to the slaves, and give them the certainty of ultimate
emancipation, might perhaps avert danger and be more favourable
to the interests of the planters. The danger is infinitely greater from
leaving things as they are than from any even immediate emancipation
(p. 219—222).

The following is the tariff which Admiral Fleming procured from
the two Alcaldes in the Caraccas, who were in charge of the public
documents of that colony. It v/as given to him on the 18th April,
1829. The value is here stated in sterling money.

f s.

Children of Eight days old

Ditto of One year

Ditto of Five years

Ditto of Ten years

Adults of Fifteen years to Forty

Ditto of Forty-five years

Ditto of Fifty years

Ditto of Fifty-five years

Ditto of Sixty years

Ditto of Sixty-four years
For each intermediate year a proportionate increase or deduction
is made, as the age advances to 15 or rises above 40. If upwards of
sixty-four, the slaves are deemed of no value.

From the age of fifteen to forty the slaves are valued at forty-five
pounds; but if they have any particular trade, acquired at the cost
of the master, or taught by him, the highest value is to be given,
unless it be for their manumission. And where there is any blemish,
defect, or disease, which dirhinishes their value, the value is to be
lowered according as the blemish, defect, or disease may be con-
sidered to lessen their daily labour or the expense of their care.

The above was the tariff established at Caraccas in 1801 ;
and it was also in force at Trinidad. This document could not be
found at Trinidad, but Admiral Fleming discovered it at the Caraccas,
Many with whom he had conversed, at Trinidad and the Caraccas, ad-

7

10

15

0

18

0

27

0

45

0

41

5

30

0

18

15

7

10

0

15

390 Report of a Coynmittee of the House of Commons

mitted that this law was in force in Trinidad. A Columbian, in particu-
lar, of the name of Mundosa, told him that he himself had resided in
Trinidad, and the law was then in force, prior to its capture by the
British, and that he himself had had a slave emancipated by it.
The law applied equally to domestic and field slaves. Admiral F.
knew it to be, common in Cuba, and that plantation slaves were
freed under it (p. 239, 240).

Admiral Fleming also laid before the committee authenticated
extracts from the Spanish Slave Code which he had obtained, by
order of the governor of the Caraccas, from the proper officers there.

These laws are too long to be inserted here, but they breathe a
spirit of morality and humanity which is highly creditable to the
Spanish government. They provide for the careful instruction of slaves
in the Catholic religion, and for their enjoying all the holidays of
precept. They also provide for their food and clothing ; for the re-
gulation of their daily tasks, according to their ages, powers, and
strength ; prohibiting laborious tasks to the aged, or to children under
seventeen, or to females, which last shall not be employed in labours
unbecoming their sex, or in any which may oblige them to mix with
male slaves. Time is also to be allowed to them for simple and
innocent amusement, in v/hich all excess in drinking is to be prevented.
Separate dwellings are also to be provided for the unmarried of both
sexes, and all their dwellings are to be commodious, and to have
bedsteads, blankets, and other necessaries ; and there is to be
a separate house for the sick. Various other regulations are pre-
scribed, all bearing the character of great benevolence, for the
temporal and spiritual interests of the slaves (p. 240, 241, 242).

IX. Robert Sutherland, Esq., had visited Hayti four times
since 1815. He remained there for sometime in 1819, 1820, and
1821, and afterwards saw it in 1824 and 1827. His experience of
the Haytians is that they are a free people, working for wages or for
shares of produce, and not coerced to labour, except by their wants.
Great numbers of them have land of their own, which they cultivate
themselves, while others labour for hire, though the number of labourers
for hire was complained of as deficient. The Code Rurale he did not
consider as an oppressive code by any means. There is decidedly no
such thing in Hayti, practically, as compulsory labour. All corporal
punishment is abolished in Hayti. Those who resided on their own
farms appeared to him to live in the happiest state possible. Those
who were employed for hire on. plantations wrought five days in
the week, having Saturday and Sunday entirely to themselves (p. 223).

X, The Rev. N. Paul, a coloured native of the United States,
and a Baptist minister. An act was passed by the legislature of New
York, in 1817, abolishing slavery in 1827. The number thus freed
was upwards of 10,000. No means, that he knew of, were employed to
prepare these slaves for emancipation, and no disturbance of any kind
was caused by it, either at the time, or at any time thereafter; and he
heard no complaints of the subsequent conduct of the emancipated

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Rev. T. Morgan. 391

persons. After their emancipation they became much more atten-
tive to their religious duties, and were eager to acquire education.
The general wages they obtained for agricultural labour when eman-
cipated were from ten to twelve dollars a month and their provisions
(p. 229, 230).

A number of slaves who have escaped from slavery in the United
States into Upper Canada have formed settlements there. They had
introduced the culture of tobacco to a considerable extent, and had
begun to export it : it had never been thought of before. — They pur-
chased their land of the Canada Company. They have been very indus-
trious, and their moral conduct exemplary. They are generally either
Methodists or Baptists, and their children are carefully educated. At
their settlement of Wilberforce they have taken very effectual means
to ensure sobriety : they have unanimously agreed to exclude ardent
spirits. He visited these settlements as a Missionary, and did not
find any distress among them, or any tendency to disorder (p. 231 —
233).

XI. The Rev. Thomas Morgan, a Wesleyan Missionary, resided
in the West Indies seventeen years. He had been at Nevis, St.
Kitt's, St. Vincent, Antigua, and Jamaica. In the smaller islands he
was frequently on the estates, and had a good opportunity of judging
of the state of slavery. The Negro certainly possesses the ordinary
powers of acquiring information in common with his fellow-creatures^
and only requires they should be developed. He understands and
profits as much as the people of this country by religious instruction,
the beneficial effect of which on those who receive it is verymanifest. At
the same time it is impossible, under the present system of slavery, to
carry religion to any considerable extent, on account of the inability
of the slaves to attend religious worship. But the disadvantages they
labour under in that respect are less in the smaller islands than in
Jamaica. There was no reason to complain of opposition or discou-
ragement in either St. Kitt's, Antigua, or Nevis. In St. Vincent there
was at one time great opposition, but there was afterwards a better
feeling. In Jamaica there were not the same facilities. In Antigua,
for instance, we may have preached on forty estates; in Jamaica we
preached only on one or two. In the Leeward Islands, viz. Antigua,
St. Kitt's, and Nevis, the slaves receive a small allowance from
the master, consisting of Indian corn, corn meal, horse beans, and
herrings. The allowance is not sufficient to maintain them. They
are forced to supply the deficiency by working on Sundays ; for no
time in the week is allowed them by law. He had heard Mr. Raw-
lins, the Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Kitt's, declare that
itwas impossible for the slave to subsist on what he receivedfrom his mas-
ter, unless he worked on the Sunday. In St. Vincent 26 week-days are
allowed the slaves for cultivating their grounds, as in Jamaica. He
regarded the Negroes as a very industrious race, when they worked
for themselves ; and he had no doubt they would work cheerfully for
fair wages in growing sugar or in any other way. The emancipated
slaves maintain themselves very comfortably by labouring in various

392 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

ways for their own benefit. He never knew them to work on sugar
plantations. He had never heard of such a thing; being proposed to
any of them. Their conduct is usually quiet and orderly (p. 234 —
236).

Mr. Morgan apprehended no danger whatever from emancipation.
He believed the slaves when free would follow their occupations, if
fairly paid for their labour. He apprehended great danger, however,
from continuing the state of slavery as it exists in Jamaica. The de-
sire for freedom is very strong among all classes of the slaves, religious
and irreligious, only that the religious are unwilling to take violent
steps to obtain it. They are very peaceably inclined. The emanci-
pation, in his opinion, when it takes place, should be total, and not
partial (p. 236, 237).

The free black and coloured people of Jamaica are rapidly improv-
ing in morality and knowledge, and many are acquiring wealth.

Mr. Morgan repeated over and over again his conviction that there
was no danger in granting emancipation, under proper regulations of
police, but the greatest dangeV in withholding it.

XH. The Rev. William Knibb, a Baptist missionary. He had
been seven years in Jamaica, and quitted it in April, 1832. He was
in that island during the late insurrection, and at Montego Bay, near
the spot where it first broke out. He was well acquainted with the
slaves in that quarter ; many of them were Baptists ; some of these
took part in the rebellion, but none who were previously known to him
by person. Of the congregation under his immediate charge three
were tried at Falmouth and punished, but not capitally. He did not
know whether they were guilty or not. — About Christmas, 1831, the
slaves appeared to be generally dissatisfied. The reasons they gave
for it were that a part of the time allowed tliem by law was taken
from them ; and that they were severely flogged, and, when flogged,
were taunted by the overseers with their being to be free at Christmas.
They came to ask him if that was true ; and he told them that it was not
true. — They complained also of being debarred of their religious privi-
leges,and floggedforattendingthehouse of God. The fact that such taunt-
ing language, about their expected freedom, was used by the overseers,
was reported to him not only by slaves, but by a free man and a white
book-keeper, v/ho heard it used on Flamstead estate. It was a com-
mon topic with the planters that the Negroes were looking for their
freedom at Christmas. After the rebellion many of the Negroes told
Mr. K. that the parochial meetings had led them to believe it. He had
heard nothingof it before from the slaves, except the enquiry to whichhe
has alluded as to the truth of the rumour, and to which he had given a
negative. He had heard, it is true, white persons using that language,
but he did not believe it ; he had not the slightest expectation of any
rising ; he thought it was idle talk, and that persons who so talked
did not really mean what they said. — Meetings had been held in
every parish with the exception of Kingston, at which all who chose
might attend ; and resolutions were passed to the effect of renouncing
their allegiance to the British crown. He had himself attended that

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev . W. Knibb. 39B

at Falmouth, and the question of emancipation was there publicly
discussed. The meeting consisted of proprietors, attorneys, overseers,
and others. The speakers were Mr. Macdonald, the custos of Tre-
lawney, Mr. Frater, a member of the assembly, Mr. Lamonas, and Mr.
Dyer, Mr. Frater was the chief speaker ; he and the others were very
violent : they talked of resistance, if England continued to interfere
with their property in slaves. There were black persons present, and
they may have been slaves. He knew that slaves had attended at
some of the meetings, and immediately conveyed the intelligence
obtained there to their fellows. The insurrection arose partly from
these meetings, partly from a knowledge of what was passing in
England, and a belief that the king of England had resolved on
freeing them ; and partly from an idea that the planters, to frustrate this
design, were going to transfer the island to America. The hatred of
American rule is very strong among the blacks and browns in Jamaica.
He had heard some of them declare they would spill their last drop
of blood before a Yankee should get a footing there. Their detesta-
tion of America is quite notorious. The reason of it is the contempt
witli which the blacks and browns are treated in the United States.
The slaves also dreaded a transfer to America as rendering their free-
dom quite hopeless. They expected too to be aided by the king.
This was stated to Mr. Knibb by a man under sentence of death,
whom he was requested by the custos Mr. Miller, with the concuiTence
of the chief justice, to confer with. He had no idea of this till after
the insurrection. He knew indeed they were anxious for freedom ;
but, on the only occasion on which the subject had been mentioned to
him, by any slave, as a thing looked for, he decidedly discouraged any
such idea.

The occurrences which took place during the insurrection, and after-
wards, plainly showed how intense was their passion for freedom. A
man belonging to Round Hill estate went up to a party of soldiers
and said, " I will never work more as a slave ; give me freedom and
I will work ; you may shoot me." They shot him at once. The fact
is stated in the Cornwall Chronicle. — One said if he had twenty lives;
he would risk them all for freedom. — As far as he could learn it was=
not their intention at first to destroy property or to injure the whites ;
but to insist on having wages at the rate of 2s. 6d. currenpy, or %Qd.
a day, the present rate of wages. But when the insurrection broke o.ut
they got drunk and fired the properties. — They certainly had inferred
from the violent language at the parochial meetings, and the threat
of giving up the island to America, that the king had made them free. —
Many of the Baptist slaves were active in saving their masters' pro-
perty. On Green park estate, in Trelawney, where there were many
Baptists, they mounted guard every night, and defeated a,n attempt
to fire the trash-house. They seized three of the insurgents and
brought them to Falmouth, and were rewarded by the Assembly with
£40, These men had come to him to eay that the other slaves had
blamed them for having arrested their fellows ; but Mr. Knibb com-
mended them, and begged them to continue their exertions ; and, in.
point of fact, they defended the property to the last (p. 245, 246).

3 F

394 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

In the Baptist Societies there is a distinction between members who
have been consistent characters, and have been admitted to full com-
munion as being under the influence of Christian principle, and mere
enquirers, who are on trial, as it were, and only admitted as members
if their conduct and attendance are regular for a certain period, perhaps
for two or three years, and also till they have attained some know-
ledge of Scriptural truth. They are in fact in a probationary state,
and are often not admitted into membership at all (p. 146).

Various instances have occurred of rewards for good conduct be-
stowed on Baptists by the Assembly. — Charles Campbell, a slave
belonging to Weston Favell, took charge of the estate, and pre-
served it from injury, and carried on the labours of it as at other
times ; all the Baptists on the estate uniting to preserve order. He
obtained his freedom from his master for what he had done. He was
a deacon of the Baptist church. — A man of the name of Barrett, be-
longing to Oxford estate, also a deacon, acted in the same way, and
has since had his freedom given to him. — A slave named George
Prince, another deacon, had the entire charge of the estate committed
to him with written instructions from the overseer, and he kept every
thing in the best order the whole time of the overseer's absence. The
same occurred on Carlton estate. The Baptists were numerous on
all these properties. — Six Baptists were hung belonging to Mr. Bur-
chell's congregation ; none belonging to Mr. K.'s. Some were shot at
random. In Mr. Cantlow's congregation out of forty-eight leaders
two were executed. One of them, of the name of Francis Escrow, had
his freedom for his good conduct; but he lost his wife, who was shot by
the random firing of the militia. He was required by the overseer to
put a rebel to death, but he refused. On this the overseer seized a
cutlass and with it literally hewed the alleged rebel to death in
Escrow's presence. One of Mr. Burchell's deacons, named William
Rickets, obtained his freedom for his conduct. Mr. Knibb had not
heard of one deacon having been executed, and only of one or two
leaders (p. 247, 248).

Mr. Knibb himself, and two other missionaries, Whitehorne and
Abbott, were forced, by a militia colonel, to perform military duty,
notwithstanding their remonstrances. They were after that arrested,
and on the 2nd of January, 1832, sent as prisoners to head-quarters
in an open boat, guarded by soldiers, and when they landed were
paraded as prisoners through the open streets ; and, after being sent
backwards and forwards from the civil to the military power, were
confined in the Court-house, guarded by four soldiers, and assailed
with reproach and insult, till at midnight they were permitted to go
on bail, but without being told of what they were accused, to a pri-
vate house in Montego bay, which house they were not allowed to quit.
During the interval, however, Mr. Knibb was ordered down to the
court-house to answer a charge of having been preaching contrary to
an interdict of the militia colonel, Lawson. He pleaded that he had
only been performing family worship in the house where he resided,
A little time after he had been sent back, some gentlemen, among
whom was Mr. Manderson, a magistrate, and Mr. Roby, the collector
ojPthe customs, and Mr. Lewiin, came to inform him that fifty persons

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W.Knibb. 395

were coming with clubs to murder him and the other two missionaries.
This was on the 7th of February, martial law having ceased on the
5th. The Baptist chapel was demolished on the 7th at noon by a
mob of white men, though the commander in chief. Sir W. Cotton, was
in the town with some troops, and there were king's ships in the bay.
On hearing this, and that the same mob was coming to attack him,
Mr. Knibb escaped with his wife and child and the other two mis-
sionaries, to Mr. Manderson's, and thence on board one of the king's
ships. They were led to this step by the alarm they felt, partly from
the representations of their friends, and partly from the threats and
scurrilous language of the newspapers, the Courant and the Cornwall
Courier, which said they should be tarred and feathered wherever they
could be met with. On the 14th of February Mr. Knibb obtained
his release both from his bail and from confinement, by the following
discharge : —

"■ Montego Bay, February lUh, 1832.
" Having examined the evidence of Samuel Stennett, Alexander
Erskine, Adam, and Paris, against W. Knibb, Baptist missionary, and
finding nothing therein to support a criminal prosecution, I declare
the said W. Knibb discharged with his sureties from their recogni-
zances." (Signed) Richard Barrett, Custos.

Being released from his confinement, under this order, without the
slightest charge having as yet been preferred against him, though
loaded during his confinement with injury and outrage, he returned
to Falmouth on the 15th of February, where he found his chapel had
been destroyed on the same day on which the demolition of that at
Montego bay had taken place. His congregation there he found had
been suffering great anxiety on his account, and they appeared de-
lighted with his return. Persons came from thirty estates, containing
perhaps 10,000 slaves, to enquire after him. They complained
much that they who had defended their masters' property should suffer
for the sins of others, and that their chapel should be destroyed, and
no place left them to meet in, though not a single estate in which he
had members had been burnt. This occurrence produced a very
strong sensation among them. They enquired whether the chapel
would be rebuilt, and they be permitted again to attend the worship
of God. Mr. Knibb consoled them with the hope of having the
chapel rebuilt by help from England, and of again enjoying their
religious privileges. The chapel had been their own work, built
at their own expense. Instead of being allowed to preach to
them then, he did not even dare to leave the house, being threatened
with murder by a party assembled for that purpose, consisting not of
blacks but of whites. There was no protection of law ; mob govern-
ment ruled. The custos, Mr. Miller, and Mr. Gordon, a magistrate,
to whom he applied for protection, said that in the then state of feel-
ing it was impossible, and advised his departure. A party of white
men, disguised in women's clothes, came to his house at night, and
threw stones while he was in bed: one stone fell on the bed. There
were some coloured gentlemen, who had heard of the intended attack,
and came for Mr. Knibb's defence, and when the assailants heard

396 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

them cry out, they ran away. These attempts were renewed for three
successive nights, and at last Mr. K. was persuaded by his friends to.
quit the place and repair to Montego Bay, where he had left his wife
and child. He was assured of the designs against him by two white
gentlemen, one of whom had been applied to to assist in tarring. and
feathering him. — He knew of nothing that could have excited such
ill will to him among the whites of Falmouth, except that his congre-
gation there was composed of slaves, of whom 1000 generally attended
on Sunday mornings, the number of members being 983 and of en-
quirers about 2500. These came from eighty plantations. The
congi'egation had been originally formed by a preceding missionary
who had died ; many of them were illiterate, but many very sensible.
A great many were learning to read, and about 100 adults could
read. He found the desire for knowledge very intense, and he had
no doubt they were stimulated to take pains by the power it would
give them of gaining information relative to slavery. Since the rebel-
lion he has learnt what he had not known before, that they were
eager in obtaining and dijlFusing information on that subject. He
had known that they read newspapers occasionally with that view
(p. 249—255).

Mr. Knibb admitted the great hostility shown him by the whites ;
he denied, however, having ever touched, in addressing his congre-
gation either publicly or privately, on their temporal condition.
It was difficult to avoid doing it, but he thought it right and
what every good man would do. When called to preach on subjects
connected with the freedom of the gospel, he was at pains to make
them understand that gospel freedom had respect to the soul and
not to the body, and that there were slaves in the times of the
apostles as well as now. He thought it imperatively his duty to
preach the whole counsel of God ; but he took care to make it under-
stood that Christian freedom meant spiritual not temporal freedom,
and the conduct of his congregation was a sufficient proof he was not
misunderstood. The witnesses he had summoned from 70 different
estates would have proved this had he had the pleasure of being tried
at the March assizes, as was intended. General clamour had charged
him with preaching seditious doctrines. He called loudly for the
proof, but it has never been produced. At a public meeting of planters
at Montegobay, thecustos Mr. Macdonald in the chair, a resolution was
moved and carried, " That it appeared, from a mass of moral evidence,
that the Baptists had been instrumental in misleading the slaves, by
inculcating doctrines teaching disobedience to their masters. As sec-
tarianism leads to revolution both in church and state, it behoves us to
adopt means to prevent any other than duly authorized ministers of the
established churches of England and Scotland from imparting religious
instruction to the slaves ; and in furtherance of this measure we call
upon all proprietors of estates, or their attorneys, to put down all
sectarian meetings on their respective properties, and that the magis-
tracy should be most strongly urged to withhold for the future their
license' to sectarian ministers and their places of worship." The
meeting was for forming a Colonial Church Union, and the resolu-
tions were printed in all the newspapers, and were of course known to

on the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knibb. 397

all the slaves. All the religious slaves who attended sectarian meetings
■would of course mourn over such resolutions. But although the light
produced by instruction tended to increase the desire of freedom, yet
in the case of truly Christian slaves, they thought it wrong to seek it
by violence. They said tliat if God intended to give them freedom,
he would give it without force on their parts. If they took it by force,
it would come with a curse and not a blessing ; and this sentiment,
he believed, was the only security against their using force. In reply
to a question whether he had been always guarded in preaching to
the slaves, he said he had proffered proof of it in Jamaica, and he should
be ready to produce a thousand witnesses of that fact (p. 255 — 257).

Mr. Knibb then entered into some explanation of the causes which
led to the disHke of missionaries. The doctrines inculcated by mis-
sionaries were directly condemnatory of the general habits of
thinking and acting of the white community of Jamaica, which con-
sisted chiefly of the mere servants of the proprietors who resided in
England. Certainly it was his conviction that the generality of the
planters entertained the opinion that Christianity would lead neces-
sarily to the abolition of slavery. This was the view given him of the
general feeling in the island by Mr. S. M. Barrett, and many others
whom he declined to name (p. 258).

In a great variety of ways English newspapers, and the contents of
English newspapers, were conveyed to the knowledge of the slaves
(p. 259).

At Montego bay from 90 to 100 slaves were punished capitally,
either hung or shot ; and some were flogged to death, dying of the
infliction on the next day. One of Mr. Burchell's members (sen-
tenced to 500 lashes), died of the flogging. The courts martial that
sat were composed of ipilitia officers : he did not know if they had Sir
Willoughby Cotton's approbation. He could not answer for that fact.
He thought, in some cases, they could not have had his sanction, as
persons were shot at distant places on the same day. There were
about 300 shot, many by drum-head courts. One person told Mr.
Knibb he had caused eleven to be shot. Some were tried, and shot
or hung, in half an hour. Sir W. Cotton being then absent. He had
himself seen men hung at Montego bay when Sir W. Cotton was so
far distant that he could not have been referred to. The trials and
executionswent on the most rapidly in St. James's while the general was
in Westmoreland ; and he was told that he had delegated to some other
the power of signing the sentences of the courts martial. Mr. K. had
never known more than one hour elapse between the sentence and
the execution. At Montego bay he said that 90 had been hung or
shot, but in fact the number was greater. At Falmouth 11 were shot,
6 were hanged, and 36 were flogged. The executions were con-
ducted with considerable levity, four or six being sometimes executed
in a day at Montego bay. Mr. Knibb saw Delaney hung, with two
others. He fell from the gallows by the rope breaking. He went up
again with llie utmost firmness, and, the other two being dead,
he swung in the centre, and kicked them. There was on this quite a
horse-laugh, which was very disgusting. Blacks as well as whites

398 Heport of a Committee of the House of Commoni

joined in it. The bodies of those shot and hung at Montego bay were
buried in a trench ; those put to death in the country were left to be
devoured by vultures. The feeling produced by all this is very pain-
ful and alarming, as many have lost not only fathers and brothers,
but wives also. The severities exercised are much more likely to
excite a deep-rooted feeling of revenge, and to accelerate a recur-
rence to violence, than to produce terror. The firmness with which
they met death Avas remarkable. There was not one who did not.
Delaney's case was one he should never forget. He neither heard
of nor saw one who manifested any symptom of fear : not even a
woman who was hanged. These things were currently known in the
island, and of course to the slaves generally, for they appeared in all
the newspapers (p. 258 — 262).

A young man, a Methodist leader, belonging to the militia, having
been asked to pray with some people condemned to be shot at Fal-
mouth, was then ordered to shoot them, and did shoot them. He
did it under military compulsion, and he gave Mr. Knibb to under-
stand that the very men who had told him to pray with the convicts
had then ordered him to shoot them. His own words to Mr. Knibb
were, " They asked me to pray with them prisoners, and then they
made me shoot them." He spoke to me of the matter as a great
hardship that had been imposed upon him (p. 263, 264).

Some of the clergymen of the church of England went out and
fought in regimentals, among them Mr. Burton. He joined the
militia as a trooper (p. 265).

Mr. Knibb was re-examined as to the conversations that had passed
between him and the slaves prior to the insurrection. He repeated that
several slaves, Baptists, had come to him to ask if it were true, as they
had heard, that they were to be free after Christmas. He told them
no. They said they had heard the overseers frequently say that they
were to be free after Christmas. He told them it was not the case —
he had heard nothing of it, and did not believe it, and he hoped they
would not harbour such thoughts. They said, at the same time, that
they had never been so cruelly treated as during the preceding three
or four months. The only reason they assigned for this increased
severity was that sometimes, when they were laid on the ground to be
flogged, the overseers said that, as they (the slaves) were to be free at
Christmas, " they would get it out of them first." On the occasion
of this conversation, and with a view to create a disbelief of such
statements, and thus to allay their excitement, he used the words, " Did
you ever know the overseers tell you any thing to do you good V
The words were used to undeceive them. He had no reason to doubt
that the statements made to him by these slaves were correct, and his
object was to undeceive them.

Being questioned as to some passages in a printed speech of his,
which had appeared in a paper called the Patriot, he affirmed their
accuracy. One respected the flogging of an infant slave ; and he said
that, in riding through Macclesfield estate, in Westmoreland, he had
seen a child of seven or eight years old laid down, and held down by
four others, and flogged. This was about two years ago. — Another case

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knibh. 399

he had mentioned, that of Catherine Williams, was as follows: —
" Just as the rebellion broke out, one of my members came and said
that Catherine Williams had just crawled to her house, and her back
a mass of blood. I said, ' How is this ? she always appeared to be a
faithful servant.' My informant said that she had been confined in a
dungeon for three months, and had been flogged because the overseer
wanted her to live with him in fornication, and she would not. Her
back, my informant stated, was very bad indeed. He had mentioned
the circumstance to Mr. Blyth, a Scotch missionary, who wished it to
be laid before the custos ; but my informant feared the trouble it would
occasion, and Mr. Blyth therefore declined doing it. I had the utmost
confidence in my informant." — A third case was that of one William
Plomer, an emancipated slave, who was one of the witnesses called on
behalf of Mr. Gardner, the missionary, who was shut up in a room
with a pot of burning brimstone, in order to induce him to accuse Mr.
Burchell ; the person who placed the pot of brimstone telling him
that they would give him a taste of hell, as he would say nothing
against Mr. Burchell. This was related to Mr. Knibb by the gentle-
man who had taken Plomer's examination, preparatory to the trial of
Mr. Gardner, and who had inserted the fact in the brief. He had heard
the person's name who had placed the pot of brimstone and used the
above language, buthe had forgotten it. The person, however, who took
the examination of Plomer could tell (p. 265 — 267). ^

Mr. Knibb was further asked whether he had used the following
language attributed to him in this speech, viz. — " A colonial Church
Union, composed of nearly all the fornicators in the island, has been
formed to stop the march of mind and religion, to protect the white
rebels from deserved punishment, and to dry up the streams of religious
instruction. Infidels, clergymen, slave owners, newspaper editors,
high and low, have joined hand and heart." " Yes," replied Mr.
Knibb, "that is mine" (p. 268).

Mr. Knibb stated that of the Baptist missionaries six had been
arrested during the rebellion, and one Wesleyan. Thirteen Baptist
chapels and four Wesleyan chapels were destroyed. The effect on the
minds of the slaves of the destruction of those chapels was of the
most painful description. He can never forget their tears and their
emotion at the sight. Mr. Knibb told them that, if they were obedient,
their chapels would be restored, and that he was sure the king would
see that they were permitted to pray, but this would depend on their
good conduct (p 270).

Mr. Miller, the custos, told Mr. Knibb that the Governor had re-
quested him to find out the cause of the rebellion, that he himself
was perfectly convinced of Mr. Knibb's innocence, and that he had con-
ferred also with the Chief Justice on the subject, and they concurred
in thinking that they could not do better than employ him ; and the
custos added, " Mr. Knibb, I have his Excellency's permission to say
that if any slave will divulge that which may lead to a full disclosure
of the rebellion, every effort will be made to have his life spared."
This occurred between the period of finding a true bill of indictment
against him, and the abandonment of the prosecution by the Attorney-

400 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

General. Mr. Knibb accordingly examined some of the prisoners,
some alone, and others in the company of Mr. Murray, a Wesleyan
minister. He examined each separately. He examined none that had
been tried, except one who was under sentence of death. They agreed
in their answers as contained in the papers now produced, a copy or the
substance of which he had given to Mr. Miller. These answers were
taken down at the time, in the presence of the slaves, on sheets of
paper, and afterwards copied into this book. Mr. Murray is now at
Montego Bay. Mr. Miller himself attended the examinations of
Sharpe and Gardner. The meetings of the inhabitants and what
passed thereformedone of the principal reasons they alleged for the insur-
rection. The last of the examinations he took was that of a slave
called Hilton, on the 23rd of March. — Meetings of the drivers of
different estates were held at a place called Retrieve, where Samuel
Sharpe appeared to be the leading man. On Christmas morning
Sharpe spoke to Hilton, at the chapel at Montego bay, to be sure, if
the minister asked him about freedom, or not working after Christmas,
to tell him he knew he was free, and that he would not work again
for any body any more unless he was paid for it. The minister, how-
ever, did not call upon him. After the morning meeting he went to
Richard Bailey's, with some others, and had breakfast. Bailey
looked for an old newspaper, and said, " This is not the right one ;
this is four months old, and tells us that eight years back women
were not to be flogged." Bailey found another paper, which said
that the English people would not submit to the brutish practice any
longer. Hilton afterwards asked Thomas Williams, a leader, whether
it was true what was said about freedom. Williams said, No; —
that foolish people had put it into their heads ; for he had never heard
Mr. Burchell say one word about it, or that he was gone home to bring
out their freedom ; but that the whole had been made up at Retrieve.
The persons examined all referred to the expectation that was enter-
tained of the island being given up to America. — In one of the exami-
nations is found an account of a conversation among some of the
slaves, which took place on Christmas day, to the following effect : —
Gardner and Dove, though supposed to have been leaders, both
solemnly denied that they had any connexion with the plot till
Christmas day. On that day they met Guthrie, Sharpe, Taylor, and
other members of the church, who were talking about freedom.
Taylor strongly urged Sharpe not to refuse to go to work after Christ-
mas. Gardner strongly advised to go to work after Christmas, saying,
" If freedom is come we shall get it quietly, but if we do what is
wrong we shall bring disgrace on religion." Sharpe said, " I know
we are free. I have read it in the English papers. I have taken an
oath not to work after Christmas without pay, and I will not."
Sharpe then went away. Gardner after fell into company with Guth-
rie and some others, at Guthrie's house. Guthrie oftered them wine
or spirits : they chose vi'ine. Guthrie poured it out, and, taking his
glass, said, " Well, friends, I hope the time will soon come when we
shall have our privilege, and when we shall drink wine free. I hope
we shall soon have Little Breeches under our feet." Gardner asked

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knibb. 401

who was Little Breeches. Guthrie said, " He is ray master, Mr.
Grignon. I heard him say the king was going to make us free, but
he hoped all would be of his mind, and spill their blood first. But,"
added Guthrie, " I'll be the first to do the job, though I am his
slave ; I will give him a pill as I follow him." On another occasion
some one was doubting of their freedom, when John Morris said he
was sure it was true, because when the women at Duckett's having
young children went to Mr. Grignon for their Christmas allowance,
Mr. Grignon said that they must now look to their friends in England
for allowance, for he had no more to give them. Morris argued long
on this fact, saying, "If we are not free, what made Mr. Grignon
say so?" This made all the people stout upon it, and they said they
would throw down their hoes and say they were free (p. 271 — 273").

One circumstance, Mr. Knibb said, which induced the slaves to
think they were to be made free, was Mr. Beaumont saying in the
Assembly, when discussing the bill for compulsory manumission, that
they should no longer be called slaves, but labourers (p. 274).

Mr. Knibb said he believed the people told him the truth, for it
agreed with what his own people told him afterwards. His church
was not in St. James's, where the rebellion broke out, but in the next
parish to it, Trelawney ; and he earnestly requested them afterwards
to tell him all they knew. They said they heard it commonly said
they were to be free at Christmas, and that, if he had not contradicted
the rumour, they should have continued to believe it. A young free
man of colour, who had joined the rebels, and was executed at Mon-
tego Bay, told him and so did many others that they did not expect the
king's troops would fight against them. This man of colour was exe-
cuted for a deliberate murder. He shot a faithful slave, who was
defending his master's property (p. 274).

The slaves are now in the full expectation that their freedom will
come to them from England. He doubted whether they would be
content to wait long for it. As the rebellion was breaking out he
had himself spoken to about a thousand people, not of his flock,
urging and entreating them, even with tears, to remain faithful to
their masters, telling them they were misled by wicked men, and that no
free paper had come out. But some who were present told him af-
terwards that the effect of what he said was neutralized by their being
told by some of their companions, " Do not believe him ; the white
men have given him money to say so. The free paper has come out."
The way in which he came to meet these people Avas this. On the
last day of the Christmas holidays he had gone to some distance to
open a new place of worship. Mr. Blyth came and told him he had
heard the people were going to refuse to work, and that the militia
had been called out. He went off" immediately ; and, after riding 32
miles, he found them assembled, and talked to them for three or four
hours, assuring them they were all mistaken, and urging them, if they
had any love to Christ, to go to their masters, and not suffier them-
selves to be misled to their ruin. He had heard of their having this
impression only the night before from Mr. Blyth. A person named
Stephen James also called to tell him of the rumour, and he said to

3 G

402 Rejjort of a Committee of the House of Commtnis

him, " Go and tell them that, if one of my members refuses to go to
work after Christmas, I will exclude him instantly from the church ;"
and he sent his free people in all directions to the estates to tell them
the same. It was three or four months before this that he had been
first questioned by the slaves. He then told them not to believe
any thing they heard about it : " it is not true : you must not listen to
any such reports at all : you ought to be thinking about your souls :
you must never speak to me on the subject ; I will not hear it." He
viewed it at the time as an idle enquiry which he had only to check.
He was at this time preaching at a distance from home to a strange
congregation. He heard no more of it, and nothing of it whatever
from his own congregation. He really thought nothing more of it,
till Mr. Blyth informed him of what he heard was about to take
place. He was thunderstruck, and went and told Mr. Manderson.
But at this time the military force was under arms, and the magis-
trates quite awake. In fact he found them all better informed than
he was, having already had informations on oath. His first intima-
tion was at Falmouth, from Mr. Blyth. He immediately got Lewis
Williams, a free man, a deacon of his churchy who is still alive, to
ride from property to property, to beg them not to be led away. He
himself drove in his chaise as far as he could ; but did not get down
till ten at night, when the country was in complete confusion. The
military indeed had been called out that very day. When he got to
the place to which he was going he addressed the people in the way
he had already stated (p. 275 — 277).

Mr. Knibb certainly thought the slaves were more disposed to
listen to the missionaries of the Baptists and Methodists than to the
ministers either of the English or Scotch churches. There were
some excellent men among the English clergy, but few slaves com-
paratively attend upon them. Some of them use their very utmost
exertions, but not only are their habits of life and their adaptation of
language and manners different, but they had other congregations to
attend to, the free and the whites. The same sermon that would suit a
white and intelligent man would be lost on the unlettered and simple
Negro (p. 278).

In the parish of Trelawney, Mr. Knibb said, there were no catechists.
There was a curate, but he did not visit any estate ; he was requested
to go on one ; he did not go, and Mr. Knibb went. He knew one
excellent and devoted curate, Mr. Hannah. He did not mean to say
he was the only excellent one. There Avere undoubtedly others, as
Mr. Dallas of Spanish Town, and many did their utmost ; but they
were occupied with the free, and, if there were no slaves in the island,
they would have had enough to do. The Church Missionary Society had
catechists ; but, if there were a hundred more missionaries in Jamaica
to-morrow, they would all have enough to do. In the disturbed dis-
tricts there were no properties where slaves were attended by curates
or catechists of the church of England ; while, on all the estates on
Avhich the Baptist missionaries were a:llowed'to go and preach, the
people continued faithful. There were Baptists engaged in the rebel-
lion ; but he meant to affirm that on the estates to which he and the

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knibb. 403

other Baptist missionaries were admitted, the people defended their
masters' property to the last. There was not a single member of Mr.
Abbott's congregation at Lucea in Hanover who was implicated in the
rebellion, or even refused to work for his owner. There was one Bap-
tist preacher wholly unconnected with the missionaries, on the borders
of St. James's and Trelawney, at a place called Spring Vale Pen, who
was shot as a rebel, many of his congregation being shot too (p. 279).

Christianity, Mr. Knibb thinks, will lead every man to love free-
dom, but true Christianity will keep him from taking it by violence.
It will inspire a love of freedom, but it will lead him to be quiet till
it is granted. As the apostle Paul says, " If thou mayest be free, use
it rather" (p. 280).

There is in the mind of the Negro a suspicion of what his master
does, so that even when Baptist missionaries have gone on an estate
at the request of the master, the slaves would not attend them. This
makes them jealous of clergymen ; and, if they thought the mission-
aries were paid by their masters, they would not come near them.
Clergymen themselves have told Mr. Knibb they found this to be the
case. He was himself once requested by Mr. E. B. of Bristol, a very
worthy gentleman of the church of England, to visit his estates ; but,
in consequence of something that was reported to the slaves to have
passed between him and the overseers of the estates, they came to
him in a body requesting him not to come, for if he did they would
not hear him. " Keep," they said, " to your own chapel, and keep
away from the overseers, and we will come and hear you."

Mr. Knibb communicated with Mr. B. on this subject privately,
and has seen him since his return, having been received by him with
great kindness. He had felt the subject a difficult one. One of Mr.
K.'s reasons for not visiting his estates was the state of concubinage in
which the overseers lived. Almost every overseer and book-keeper
in the island is living in fornication, and he did not think it right to
associate with such characters. Slanders also were raised against
himself. The attorney too took the part of the overseer against him. —
He is unwilling to go farther into the matter or to mention the pro-
prietor's name.

In the report of a speech of Mr. Knibb, he had spoke of the inno-
cent blood that had been shed during the insurrection. He said
he referred to the number who, daring martial law, had suffered
innocently. The feeling produced by it, he feared, was very strong :
for in this, as in all servile wars, great enormities were apt to take
place, and much blood shed which would not be revealed till the day
of judgment. Where soldiers go out, as they did, and fire indiscrimi-
nately, a great deal of innocent blood will be shed. This feeling he
believed to be very prevalent, but was directed, not against their
masters residing in England, who they thought were friendly to them,
but against the resident whites. The probable existence of a feeling of
resentment and revenge was the subject of much conversation among
all classes of the free in the island (p. 280, 281, 285).

Mr. Knibb left the island early in April. Mr. Miller and Dr. Gordon
had sent for him and said, " Mr. Knibb, it is our decided opinion

404 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons.

that your life is not safe. I would do every thing to protect you,
but I cannot protect you" (p. 281).

The Baptist leaders, in his congregation, were about fifty. Each
had his own ticket entitling him to come to the sacrament. No one
could have a ticket which he had not received from the minister,
whether he were a deacon, a leader, or a member. Enquirers or pro-
bationers also had their tickets ; and this explains why so many
tickets were found ; for many enquirers, after receiving their tickets,
withdrew their attendance. Most of the tickets found were of this
description. Nothing was paid for these tickets. All members how-
ever subscribed something quarterly, as the dissenters consider it the
duty of all, bond or free, to do what they can to support the gospel ;
but these contributions go, not to the support of the missionaries, for
they are supported from home, but to the erection of chapels for them-
selves, which are vested in trustees, and could not be taken from
them (p. 282).

Mr. Knibb did not know, of himself, who had commanded the
militia when the new chapel at Salem's Hill was destroyed, but he
xinderstood it was Captain Gordon who was over the company.
He was himself a prisoner at the time, and did not see it ; but the
missionaries were in possession of abundance of evidence to -take
before any court of justice of the persons who destroyed the chapels
(p. 283).

He had been informed of slaves having been threatened with death,
or severe punishments, for refusing to give evidence against the mis-
sionaries. He had also heard of torture being inflicted to extort in-
formation as to slaves engaged in the rebellion ; but he had no per-
sonal knowledge to that effect. A slave, whom he himself had hired
as a servant, told him that he was flogged by his master, a man of
colour, for refusing to assist to pull down the chapels (p. 283, 284).

Mr. Knibb was of opinion that the Negroes, if emancipated, would
labour for wages. He had known Negroes who paid their masters a
weekly rent (one of them paying two dollars a week for himself, and a
dollar and a half a week for his wife) and maintained themselves and
families at the same time. Heknew one who purchased himself and his
Avife : he paid £250 currency for himself, and £80 for his wife. His name
is Richard Brown ; he lives at Falmouth. Samuel Swiney tried to
purchase his wife, but could not effect it, though he bade as high as
£250 (p. 284).

He had said at a public meeting in England that he believed the
Baptist slaves would be flogged if they were caught praying. He had
seen a slave flogged for praying, the very Samuel Swiney he had just
mentioned, but who is now free. The evidence is given in full in papers
laid before Parliament. Mr. Finlayson, the magistrate, said that
praying and preaching were the same in law. He and his brother
magistrate who pronounced this judgment were struck off the commis-
sion by order of the Government. He never heard any other ground
alleged for their sentence. He had not applied to the Governor
on the occasion, but sent the facts to the Society at home, that they
might act as they thought proper. They laid the matter before the

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knibb. 405

Colonial Department. He did not regard himself, as a Missionary,
entitled to originate any matter by applying to the Governor or the
Attorney-General. An order has, he believes, gone out requiring all
complaints to be made through the Governor ; but he knew nothing
of that then. He had published the case in a newspaper in Jamaica, be-
cause, having sent it home, he thought it fair to apprise Mr. Finlayson
of his having done so. He does not think that, after what has passed,
magistrates in Jamaica would flog slaves for praying, but he thinks
overseers would do it, and with impunity. Mr. Knibb was then asked
whether the overseer could by law do this, provided he limited the
number of lashes to 39 ; but to this he gave a vague answer, profess-
ing not to know sufficiently the provisions of the new slave law.*
He had never attended to the proceedings in the courts of law, as he
made it a point not to interfere with the temporal condition of the
slaves. He had heard them say, however, that it was of no use to
complain (p. 290).

Mr. Knibb denied his ever having had any communication with the
Anti-Slavery Society, or having seen any of their Reporters except by
accident (p. 318).

He had no conversation with the Attorney-General on the nolle
prosequi entered by him to the indictment preferred against him at
the Cornwall Assizes. All he had learnt of it was through his attor-
ney, who told him that if the Missionary Gardiner's case broke down
the Attorney-General would not enter upon his. He went into court
with his witnesses, and the Chief Justice said to him, " You will have
the kindness, Mr. Knibb, to remove your witnesses." Mr. Knibb
said, " I am not sure whether I am not to be tried." He said, " You
are not ; there is a nolle prosequi entered." Mr. Knibb bowed and
went out (p. 319).

The above is the whole of Mr. Knibb's evidence which it seems at
all material to give. We have omitted many of the offensive and dis-
courteous questions which were addressed to him by some member of
the Committee, and which, while they tended in no degree to shake the
force of his testimony, manifested amost galling sense of its importance,
and of the irritation it had produced in the mind of his examiner.

We have now gone through the whole of the evidence which was
adduced to establish Mr. Buxton's propositions, " That the slaves,

* Had Mr. Knibb been acquainted with that law, he might have replied most
confidently that no overseer who limited his lashes to 39 was liable to be called
in question in any court of justice for any punishment within that limit which he
might inflict, whether for any offence, or for no offence. The words of the 33rd
section of that Act, of February 19, 1831, authorize every overseer to inflict 39
lashes on any slave ; and there is no part of that clause, nor of any other clause
in that Act, or in any other Act of the Jamaica statute-book, which authorizes any
magistrate to take cognizance of any complaint, made by a slave, of a flogging
which does not exceed, and is not afiirmed to exceed, 39 lashes ; provided
only they are not inflicted twice in the same day, or until the person shall have
recovered from the effects of any former punishment.

406 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

if emancipated, would maintain themselves, would he industrious, and
disposed to acquire property ; and that the dangers of convulsion are
greater from freedom withheld from than frovi freedom granted to the
slaves ;" and we think it will be allowed, by every candid and unpre-
judiced reader, that he has most triumphantly established them. But
we must not forget that we have still to hear the upholders and apo-
logists of slavery in vindication of their system, and in refutation of
the strong statements that have already been brought under the view
of our readers. To that part of our task we therefore now proceed.

I. Captain Charles Hampden Williams, of the Royal Navy,
commanded the first ship of war which arrived at Montego Bay two
days after the late insurrection had broken out. He has been pro-
moted for his services there, and his conduct has been applauded both
by the Admiral on the station and by the civil authorities. He had
been sixteen months in all in the West Indies, and in that time had
visited almost all the West India islands (p. 291). And yet Captain
Williams states in a subsequent part of his examination (p. 297) that
he had gone for the^rs^ time to the West Indies " in January last,"
which was January, 1832, only six months prior to the day of his
examination. We presume, therefore, he must have meant, by
January last, January 1831.

The cause of the insurrection was that the slaves understood the
king had given them their liberty, but that the planters had withheld
it from them, and he adds, " / believe they were stirred up to the
rebellion by the Baptists." The gallant Captain's reasons for this
belief are somewhat vague. He attended several courts martial
of slaves at Lucea, and he was led to suppose from what passed that
the Baptists had preached up the slave's right to liberty. It could
not be brought home to any body, but this was his inference. He had
spoken to several members of the court martial, and they were all con-
vinced the Baptists had stirred up the rebellion, though they could not
bring it home ! " I saw several men shot, hanged, and flogged." " Every
man had a fair trial before the courts, which were composed of militia
officers, and I believe every man to have merited his punishment."
" They had a very fair chance. I went up to one prisoner myself,
and offered to assist him in his defence."* He does not think any
persons were killed without trial, except they were in rebellion. He
had met with no slaves in open rebellion. He went seven miles with
his sailors " to try to get near them ;" but they could not come
within gunshot of them. In his opinion " all the punishments that
took place were cases required for example." The rebellion, in the
opinion of this officer, was " very formidable indeed ;" and the reason
he gives for thinking so, for he admits he saw nothing of it himself, is
this, that when he arrived at Montego Bay he found them " in a great
panic," " The militia themselves were frightened, and he had to call

* The gallant. Captain does not say the offer was accepted. We rather infer
irom his silence that the poor prisoner was too undiscerning to appreciate its
value.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Capt. Williams. 407

their very " colonel* to order," and to tell him that he could not act
with him unless " he adopted discipline and order," It, therefore,
became quite necessary to " strike terror into the Negroes," and
therefore 100 persons were executed by shooting and hanging, and
100 flogged. " I believe," says the Captain, " that was the exact
number."f Besides these, he thinks, " 400 more were shot in resist-
ance in open warfare."!

Captain Williams further testifies " that he went out to the West
Indies with strong opinions upon Negro slavery;" he believed they
were " an ill-used people," and he gives as his reason for having thus
condemned the West Indians before-hand, " because I had lived in
a family that even would not eat West Indian sugar, because it was
raised by slaves." But " what," he is then asked, " is your opinion
on that subject now ?" To this he promptly replies, " I believe they
are much better off than any labouring classes in this country !" But,
he is asked, " are you not aware that they are flogged at the will of
their masters V The reply of Captain Williams to this question is
highly instructive : — " Their masters," he says, " can inflict thirty-
nine lashes ; but they must first of all have two or three justices of
the peace, or magistrates, before they can give the punishment ; and
I could give my men forty-eight lashes whenever I please, and more
severe." || Before he went out Captain Williams was in favour of

* This, we suppose, was the redoubted Colonel Lawson of whom we have
heard so much.

f It was but a just retaliation that the same militia officers whom the Negroes
had so terrified should be made the instruments of striking a salutary terror into
them in return, by shooting, and hanging, and mangling with the cart-whip 200
unarmed wretches, who had dared so to frighten them. But was it quite fair
towards the persons thus summarily tried, and convicted^ and shot, and hung,
and lacerated, to constitute as their judges, without appeal, the very men who had
been terrified and disgraced by them ? Does Captain Williams think that was
giving the prisoners a " fair chance V

X Captain Williams has no where told us how many lives this " formidable
resistance," this " open warfare," caused the gallant troops opposed to them,"
and for whose loss so severe a vengeance was exacted by the alarmed members
of these courts martial.

II It is quite impossible to resist the temptation of a brief comment or two on
this evidence of this leading witness of the West Indians, this advanced guard of
their array. Mr. Burge, himself, must have blushed for him. He goes out to the
West Indies animated with Anti-Slavery views. He sails from island to island for
a few months, attending the Bishop of Barbadoes in his pastoral visits. He re-
pairs to Jamaica, and spends a month there, and reports in that short space 100
shootings and hangings, and 100 floggings worse than either shooting or hanging.
He sleeps ashore, in Jamaica, for two or three nights, having before had the
happiness of sleeping under the roof of the renowned Mr. Huggins, of Nevis,
for other three nights ; and he comes before a Committee of the House of Com-
mons to dissuade them from abolishing slavery, since he. Captain Williams, is
able to assure them, after this ample experience, that the slaves are " 7nuch better
off than an^/ labouring classes in this country." His illustrations of this extraor-
dinary statement are certainly somewhat unfortunate. He can give his men, his
British sailors, 48 \3ishes whe?iever lie pleases, ^m] these more severe than the Jamaica
cart-whip inflicts. Is it indeed so ? If it be, then indeed might the British sea-

408 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

emancipation. He is not so now. Emancipation would produce
anarchy ; there would be no more returns either of produce or
revenue ; for the slaves, being a lazy set of persons, if emancipated,
would only raise plantains and yams for their own use. Being asked
his ground for this inference, his answer is, " Because they are
naturally lazy !" He had seen several free blacks, " and they are
very lazy." He admits they have property of their own, but he is
not aware how they got it ; in short, " they are-very lazy" (p. 291,
294).

The only ground Captain Williams has for representing the Baptist
Missionaries as the instigators of the insurrection is his conversa-
tion with the officers composing the court martial, and general
rumour (p. 294). He had heard that fourteen white women had been
violated, and that seven persons had been burnt (ibid.). Being asked
whether he had any communication with the slaves on the causes of
the rebellion, he replied, " yes, I rode round one day to two or three
estates, and I desired them to remain quiet ; I told them that I would
shoot them or flog them if they did not behave well ; but they all seem-
ed well disposed. I merely admonished them, and told them I was the'
captain of the ship in the harbour." He heard of the destruction of
the Baptist chapels ; he believed it was effected at noon day, and by
whites, not by blacks. They were destroyed as a retaliation for the
missionaries having preached up rebellion ; but he was not aware of
any foundation on which that charge rested (p. 295).

Captain Williams further states that he had not heard it assigned
as a cause of the rebellion that the Negroes were afraid of being
given up to America. And yet he immediately adds, " I visited a
great many islands, and in all the islands the whites are forming a
confederacy now to cast off the mother country. It is general through-
out the West Indies. The planters are dissatisfied with the late Order
in Council, and they wish to throw off the mother country* (p. 296).

" The insurrection was quelled," said Captain Williams, "when I
left Montego Bay" (he had been there only ten days); " but there were
several executions going on at that time. When I went back to Mon-
tego Bay from Lucea" (where he had been about eighteen days), " I
saw two persons hanging, and one or two flogging at the foot of the
same gibbet !"

Captain Williams admitted that all he knew of the treatment of the
slaves in Jamaica or the other islands " was only by conversation with

man complain of his condition ; but it is a slander on the British navy to say
so. He takes it upon himself also to tell the Committee that the slave master
must have the authority of two or three magistrates, before he can inflict thirty-
nine lashes of the cart-whip on the bared buttocks of any slave, man or woman.
This, we need not say, is as gross a mis-statement of the facts of the case as could
have been uttered. It is directly the reverse of the truth, and that on the very
point which lies at the root of the whole question of slavery. To have pro-
duced such a witness, at such a crisis, looks something very like the infatuation
we have on former occasions imputed to the colonists.

* Was it possible then that the slaves should not have heard of this design,
and been influenced by it ?

on the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of C apt. Williams. 409^

white persons" (p, 297). He also admitted that all he knew against
the Baptist missionaries was from the same source. " They could
not prove it ; they could not get it in evidence ;" and yet he
admitted " that the militia officers were particularly desirous of
bringing guilt home to the Baptists ; " and that " they vverei inveterate
againstthem" (p. 298). He sawno professional or other persons assisting
the Negroes on their trials. The courts martial began by shooting the
insurgents, and afterwards by shooting and hanging them alternately.
Then they hanged all, thinking death by shooting too honourable.
The men did not mind being shot. He saw three men condemned to
death : they did not alter their voice or countenance : they appeared
prepared for it ; but he heard them express sorrow and say they were
legally condemned. The hundred who were flogged received from
150 to 500 lashes. The lives lost by the king's troops, including the
militia, were, he had heard, ten (p. 292).

Captain Williams repeated his conviction that West Indian slavery
was a happier state than that of the English peasantry. He did not
think it bore a comparison, so much better off was the condition of the
slaves. " They are a happy people, and they have a great many
enjoyments." But, supposing that the Englishman might be sold and
separated from his family, and be liable to be flogged, and to have
his Avife and daughter seduced without redress, like the slave, he was
asked if that would better his condition. He said the Englishman
was a free man, and the slave had not his feelings. He admitted,
however, that the Englishman would feel aggrieved by such liabilities ;
but still the slaves were born in that state and were used to it. The
slaves are now a happy people, and he thought they would lose by
freedom ; and many of them would not accept it if offered them. At
the same time he did not think it a happy state for a man to work for
another and receive nothing for his labour but clothing, a hut, a
garden, a surgeon, and some salt fish (p. 299 — 301).

Being asked whether the flogging of slaves was viewed with any
horror in Jamaica, he said it was not : he had never seen ■aw^ feeling
exhibited about it (p. 301).

He had affirmed the slaves to be naturally lazy ; but he admits
that the West India markets are supplied, by the voluntary labour of
the slaves, with poultry, pigs, provisions, and vegetables, which they
brought from a considerable distance to the Sunday market, and for
which they knew very well how to drive a bargain ; but all this industry,
he added, was for them^selves. And, being asked whether he knew who
would work without wages if not compelled, he said he did not know
any (p. 302).

Again, some of the free blacks in Jamaica have property, which he
supposed they must have got by their exertions ; but he persisted in
thinking they were " a careless people," not raising more than sufficient
for the present, " because they are naturally a lazy people" (p. 302).

Captain Williams does not think the slaves in Jamaica will ever
rebel again. They are convinced by late events that they cannot
succeed. The British army and navy are able to quell any insurrec-
tion ; but as for the militia, " all the militia together are not able to
cope with the slaves" (p. 303).

3 H I

410 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

Being asked whether he had not imbibed his impressions of eman-
cipation and the state of the slaves from his conversations with the
white people, Captain Williams said, " Yes, in all the islands." But
he corrects himself by adding " from observations of my own also ;"
and, when asked to specify what kind of observations, he gave, as the
example, his havino- lived three days upon an estate in Nevis, Mr.
Muggins's estate, the speaker at Nevis, where he educates eighty child-
ren, and has them taught sewing, reading, and writing, the same as
in England.*

Captain Williams believed that flogging was very rare now ; and
the reason he gives for this belief is that so many persons in England
have interested themselves in favour of the slaves. The flogging of
women, he believed, however, was still continued ; but he did not think
that would disgust the men, they were so degraded. Even in this
state of degradation, he thought the slaves more happy and comfort-
able than the English peasant ; and he was so far from regarding this
state of degradation as incompatible with happiness, that he should
say that "it was better to remain in that state than to have it altered"
(p. 304).

In the island of Jamaica he believed it was customary for the over-
seers to live with black' and brown women : they had their favourites.
He believed this to be the case generally, nor had he ever known a
master to interfere with it. It is common when English gentlemen
visit an estate to have black girls offered them. A servant offers the
girls in the master's name, but there is no constraint : it is a custom ;
and the master he believes is aware of it. This is the custom " not
only in Jamaica hut in all the islands." And the master is aware of
it " not only in Jamaica, but in the whole of the West Indies^' (page
305, 306).

At the close of Captain Williams's examination a kind friend
stepped in to extricate him from some of his inconsistencies, and drew
from him that the labour by which the slaves raise superfluities is so
very easy that it cannot be compared to free labour, and furnishes no
presumption that they will work on estates even if remunerated ; and
that, with regard to flogging females, separating husbands and wives
and children, and some other existing evils, they may be got rid of
or modified without putting an end to slavery itself.

Such is the evidence of this witness, thrust forward in the van of
the apologists and vindicators of slavery. May all who attempt to
varnish crime, and to reconcile the people of England to blood and
oppression, be equally successful in their advocacy !

* It is no small satisfaction to learn, on such autliority as that of Captain Wil-
liams, the happy revolution which has taken place in Mr. Huggins's treatment
of his slaves, since Lord Liverpool thought it right publicly to characterise his
treatment of them as cruel, atrocious, and even murderous. — See House of
Commons' Papers for 1814, No. 205, containing the proof of Mr. Huggihs hav-
ing, in the pubhc market-place of Nevis, subjected 21 of his slaves, men and
women, to upwards of 3000 lashes of the cart-whip, one woman receiving 291,
and one man 365.

on the Extinction of Slavenj. — Evidence ofW. A. Hankey, Esq. 41 1

II. William Alers Hankey, Esq., is the proprietor of a sugar
estate in Trelawney, with 300 slaves upon it, yielding about 250
hogsheads, of 14 to 16 cwt. each. He never visited the West Indies.
He knows Mr. Knibb, and has corresponded with him about his estate,
for two or three years, on the subject of instructing his slaves, being
decidedly favourable to their instruction. He felt it to be his duty to
do so, a matter of absolute obligation upon himself, and essential to
the best interests of the slaves. He should think so if he had merely
a regard to his interests as a proprietor, but also from the situation he
had held for 16 years as Treasurer of the London Missionary Society,
which embraces and employs all denominations of orthodox Christians,
including churchmen. The Baptists and Methodists have Societies of
their own. His experience led him to believe that religious instruc-
tion even increased the value of the slave in the market, and that in
no case had an insurrectionary spirit been encouraged, but checked
and resisted, by missionaries. The Society does not force reading on
proprietors who are averse to it, but they recommend and pursue it
wherever they can. He admitted that the slaves when taught to read
would read stimulating publications, and that, with the means of doing
so, slavery could not long continue ; and yet he was not prepared to
anticipate any general measure of emancipation at this moment. He
was prepared to follow the course Government meant to pursue. He
should feel it rash himself to precipitate the measure. He wished the
Government to settle the whole question, and it would be his duty
and happiness to forward the views of the Government. His disposi-
tion to favour emancipation rested on general views of humanity, and
not on any idea of pecuniary advantage from the measure, though he
admitted that West India affairs could not well be in a worse state than
at present. Even if his own interests were to be entirely merged in the
measure, he trusted that his sense of moral and religious obligation
would lead him to say the sacrifice must be made, still hoping it
might not prove a sacrifice in the end. At the same time, Mr. Knibb
- must have misunderstood him, if he supposed him to connect the im-
mediate emancipation of the slaves with Mr. Knibb's undertaking to
instruct them. He had undoubtedly expressed himself anxious to see
emancipation effected, being ready to express his abhorrence of the
system in very strong terms, and he should at all times be ready to
concur in any proper plan of effecting emancipation. He had also
expressed and certainly felt horror at the treatment the missionaries
had received in Jamaica. He had also spoken to Mr. Knibb of his
desire to have his own slaves emancipated as soon as they were fully
prepared, and he should be well contented, if it were prudent for Mr.
Knibb, on other grounds, to return to Jamaica, that he should resume
his labours among his slaves, feeling unshaken confidence in Mr.
Knibb's integrity and determination to discharge aright his spiritual
duties ; and, in case of emancipation, he should consider the presence
of such a person as highly desirobie, if not necessary. He conceived,
however, that measures of preparation ought to precede emancipation.
Mr, Hankey inherited the estate he now has as a partner in his bank-
ing house. He is also a mortgagee of New Hope and Albany estates

412 Report of a Committee of the House of Comynons

and has been through life much connected with West Indian pro-
perty. The measures Mr. Hankey himself had taken, in the way of
preparation, were very slight and incipient. He had instructed the
attorney, at his discretion, to stop some of the supplies usually granted
to the Negroes, and to give them a compensation in money, that they
might have an opportunity of being cognizant of their own wants, and
thus take one little step towards the management of themselves under
other circumstances ; but the step had not yet been taken, the time
being not yet come. He carries his notions so far that he conceives
there is great moral guilt in slavery, and that, that guilt being national,
the nation must be content to bear its share in the atonement it may
involve. But he does not think the slaves yet prepared to make a pro-
peruse of freedom, and, therefore, to give them freedom immediately
would be inexpedient. He has blamed the spirit of the colonists, and
he has blamed the spirit shown by the advocates of freedom in this
country. He has never associated himself with either party. He is
. a friend to the objects of the Anti-Slavery Society, but not to the
means it employs. He is a decided enemy to slavery in the abstract.
But he thinks it a national crime rather than an individual one, and
the nation should compensate the planter. He admits, however, that
the Negro cannot, in absolute justice, be detained in slavery till
this question is settled between the Government and the planter, and
that the Negro, at least, owes nothing to the planter (p. 307 — 313).

Mr. Hankey admitted the incompatibility of Christianity with
slavery as it now exists. Christianity cannot be so preached to the slave
as to suppress the feelings of nature in respect to his own condition.
The Negro cannot read the Bible without discovering that his state is
incompatible with what the Bible enjoins ; and yet he believes that
Christianity furnishes the best guard against the evils apprehended
from freedom, in the patience which it inspires, and the obedience to
authority it requires. A period he conceives must come beyond which
the proprietor cannot hold that unjust possession which he now has
of his fellow man as a slave. He blames, however, the blazoning the
wrongs of the Negro, as calculated to produce excitement in him
without corresponding advantage. He thinks that indolence is a
natural propensity of man, and that it is aggravated in the case of the
Negro by his peculiar circumstances. Were he himself forced to work
without remuneration he should do as little as he could. The hos-
tility of the colonists was not caused, as he thought, by a Missionary
being of this or that sect : it was directed against the pure and sim-
ple preaching of Christianity itself, whether preached by an Episco-
palian or a Baptist. In his own case he had preferred the Baptists,
because generally they were placed conveniently near his estate. The
fundamental principles of all orthodox sects are the same. He had
been only three years in possession of this estate, and he immediately
began a correspondence on the subject. While Mr. Hankey thought
the nation was bound to remunerate the planter for any loss he might
sustain by emancipation, he fully admitted that the planter had no
claim whatever on the Negro. The case w^as different with the nation.
T^he nation had sanctioned and encouraged slavery, and the criminal-

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of W.A.Hankey, Esq. 413

ity of it was never thought of by his ancestor who advanced money on
slave property. The feeling of its moral turpitude was a feeling of
modern growth, although that moral turpitude was always the same*
(p. 314—317).

* High as is our respect for the character of Mr. Hankey, and much as we
admire the openness and manly frankness with which he has expressed his opi-
nions on this subject, we must confess that we have read some parts of his ex-
amination with feelings of deep regret and extreme astonishment. We think it
due to him and to the public, as well as to ourselves, to state explicitly the
grounds which have produced in our minds these feelings of surprise and regret.

1. Mr. Hankey admits as fully as any one can do "the moral guilt," " the
moral turpitude," of slavery. He believes it to be " incompatible with Christian-
ity," and to be "opposed to the injunctions of scripture." Still he seems to think
it not an " individual" but " a national sin." We had always thought hitherto
that " national sins" were neither more nor less than the aggregate of the sins of
the individuals composing a nation, and especially of those who, having a con-
science of any particular sin, did not at least wash their own hands of it, and heart-
ily concur in employing their influence, by all lawful means, to point out its cri-
minality to others, and to induce them to aid in putting an end to it. We feel
utterly at a loss to understand the process of reasoning by which Mr. Hankey,
on his own principles, has arrived at his conclusions on this subject. With Mr.
Hankey, we admit that the crime is national, and that the suffering for it ought
to be national also ; but surely it is not enough that we should suffer nationally,
and nationally confess our sin, and endeavour to repair it; but that every indi-
vidual for himself should renounce his share of the " accursed thing," — should
relinquish at least the " Babylonish garment," and " the vvedge of gold," before
he can stand clear in the sight of God or of his own conscience.

2. 3,Ir. Hankey, however, feels some difBculty in pursuing this course, lest he
should heap further wrongs on the slaves themselves. They are not " fit," they
are not " prepared," to receive the measure of justice to which he avows that they
are fully entitled. He at least must wait the fat of the Government before he
" lets the people go." Be it so. Then has not Government intimated, in terms
that cannot be mistaken, that there are certain measures which ought to be taken
by all proprietors, and which they have themselves enforced, as far as they have
had it in their power, on all proprietors who are subject to their legislation? Those
measures it is in the power of eveiy proprietor to adopt as the rule of his own
conduct, whether his slaves are placed in a crown or in a chartered colony. Can
Mr. Hankey show that he has gone this length ? The wishes of the Government
were very clearly and repeatedly announced and urged upon the attention of the
colonists ; and it is obvious that there was not one of them which any proprie-
tor who chose to do so might not have adopted into his own plan of plantation
economy. Did he wish to rescue his slave from all necessity of Sunday labour?
He might have done as Mr. Wildman did on his Jamaica estates : hemighthave
given his slave, instead of the twenty-six week-days allowed by law, lifty-two
week-days in the year, or, what would have been still better, seventy-eight days.
He might also, with Mr. Wild (nan, have abolished the exhausting night labour
of crop. He might have entirely interdicted, with that gentleman, the flogging
of females. He might, moreover, have put down the driving whip in the field,
as the immediate stimulus to labour. He might have introduced regulations as
to marriage. He might have established for his owri slaves the principle of
compulsory manumission, and aided its operation in a variety of ways. And he
might, moreover, have had a regular record of punishments, properly vouched,
and transmitted to him from time to time. He might have done all this without
going one step beyond the declared wishes of Government, and without in-
fringing any one of the severe and oppressive enactments which load the statute-

414 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

III. James de Peyster Ogden, Esq., a native of New York.
This gentleman proves that emancipation was attended with no dan-
ger or inconvenience in the State of New York, the slaves being few,

book of the colonial legislatures. Now which one of all these practicable and
approved methods of lightening the oppressive yoke of slavery, and " preparing"
the slave for freedom, has Mr. Hankey adopted ? Has he adopted one ? We
fear not ; and we fear it because, havmg been urged to state what preparatory
steps he had adopted, he specified only one, and that one which was altogether
superfluous and uncalled for. He instructed his attorney, at the beginning of
the year 1832, to negociate with his slaves a substitution of a money payment
in lieu of the clothing and other articles of supply annually sent for their use
from this country ; and he did that in the hope that he might make them in
some measure acquainted with the use and value of money. Nothing could
have so well illustrated the utter ignorance of Mr. Hankey respecting the state
and capacity of his slaves as this most futile and unnecessary project. He will
probably have read the preceding part of this analysis before he peruses
our present remarks ; and he will then have learnt that the Negroes are as fully
acquainted with the nature and use of money, and as capable of making a bar-
gain for its acquisition and application, as any banker in Lombard or Fenchureh
Street ; and thatithis species of instruction is no more needed by his slaves than
it would be to teach him the multiplication table.

3. But this is not half of what he might have done on his own principles. He
wholly condemns the opposition of his fellow planters to the diffusion among
their slaves of a knowledge of letters. He might, after Mr. Wildman's example,
have had at least an elementary school on his estate. He might have found a man
and his wife fully competent to the task, at no very heavy annual cost, compared
at least with the importance of the object on his own showing, to have taught
the young at least, if not also the old, to read the word of God. Above all he
might have provided religious instruction, though to this hour nothing effective,
we fear, has been done for that paramount object. He has stood at the head of a
large religious society, which under his administration, and guided by his zeal, and
vigilance, and talents, has been diffusing a knowledge of the saving truths of the
gospel to the very ends of the earth. The islands of the South Seas, the myriads
of China, the millions of Hindostan, the miserable hordes of Caffraria, and even
the slaves of Guiana, have either heard, through this Society's labours of love, the
glad tidings of salvation, or been enabled to read, in the Holy Scriptures, and in
their own tongues, the wonderful works of God. Until recently, in the midst of
all these mighty exertions of benevolence, his own slaves, his own household,
seem to have been wholly overlooked. Was it impossible, with all the interest
possessed by him and his family in the well being of so many of their fellow
creatures, to do something at least to dissipate the heathen gloom which over-
shadowed them, and to shed some ray of light on their benighted souls ? Could not
even one solitary catechist be found, one man among the hundreds who have gone
forth, under his auspices, throughout the length and breadth of the earth, as the
heralds of mercy, who would have undertaken to convey some glimmering of light,
some of that moral preparation which Mr. Hankey deems so indispensable, before
he shall pay to his slaves the debt of justice which he owes them, by striking off
their fetters and admitting them to the rights which God and nature have bestowed
on them, but which he withholds on the very ground of their unpreparedness ?
Mr. Wildman succeeded, for he was in earnest, in procuring the means of reli-
gious instruction for his slaves. Was success of the same kind wholly unattain-
able in the case of Mr. Hankey ?

4. But one word more and we have done. Mr. Hankey abjures all associa-
tion with the Anti-Slavery Society. He does justice indeed to their object, and
we thank him. But then their means of accomplishing that laudable object he

on the Extinction of Slavery, — Evidence of J. P. Ogden, Esq. 415

and the free overwhelming in point of number, namely 170 to one,
and the process being also gradual. Mr. Ogden has correctly stated
that fact. But he has further stated, though without ariy data, that
the moral habits of the emancipated persons have not improved, and
that a great proportion of the petty larcenies are committed by them.
The success of the experiment however in New York would be no
criterion for judging of the effects of emancipation in the Southern
States, where the slave population amounts to two millions, being
nearly a sixth of the whole population of the United States, estimat-
ing that at thirteen millions. The slave States are Delaware, Mary-
land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana,
Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Florida

cannot applaud or concur in. As far as we can guess his meaning, it would seem
as if he alluded to their delineation of slavery and their occasional exhibition of
its practical effects. " I would not," he says, " give a strong statement to
the Negro of his wrongs," even though " those wrongs were grievous and severe.
I would practically mitigate them ; I would not expose them." Now this lan-
guage seems to proceed on false assumptions in respect of the Anti-Slavery So-
ciety. They have never published a single line, and Mr. Hankey must have
known that fact, in order to state to the Negro his wrongs, but in order to bring
them to the view of those who could " practically mitigate them." The object of
the Society, Mr. Hankey must be well aware, was not to address the Negroes, but
the public and the parliament of Great Britain. And how were the public and
the parliament to be stirred to a due consideration of the subject, or led practically
to mitigate the evils of slavery, but by delineating its real nature, and exhibiting
its real enormities ? It was their best and wisest, nay their only course, and, but
for that, the public and parliament might still have slumbered on in listless apathy.
They had also another purpose to serve, that of rousing the slumbering con-
sciences of those good men who acknowledged the authority of the Word of God,
and who were unfortunately, like Mr. Hankey, owners of slaves, that they might
not lay the flattering unction to their souls that they were not guiltless in this thing
— that God would not one day require their brothers' blood at their hands,
and therefore that they might sleep on and take their rest, leaving it to the nation
to atone for their guilt, and settle the account for them, not only as a matter of
profit and loss in this world, but of awful responsibility in the next. The Anti-
Slavery Society might indeed have whispered into the ears of their friends the
truths which they have thought it their duty to proclaim as from the house-top ;
but it may be doubted whether they would have moved a single individual, even
Mr. Hankey himself, to take one step towards doing justice to their slaves by
freeing them from their bonds. Mr. Hankey will not say that we have not truly
described slavery and its effects, nor will he say that our descriptions have had
no influence in producing those feelings on the subject, in his own mind, which
have drawn from him so many candid admissions of the guilt and criminality,
the injustice and moral turpitude, which belong to this most iniquitous system.

We should have been glad to have avoided the necessity of these comments,
but we did not dare to decline them ; and Mr. Hankey, having come forward at
this critical period of our great question, and being in fact the representative of
a very large class of West Indian proprietors, who call themselves, and we trust
really are, sincere and orthodox Christians, but who, from that very circumstance,
are able to accredit in the world both principles and practices which are far more
nearly linked with evil than good, and have had the effect of producing, we
are sorry to say, especially among many worthy and pious clergymen, and dig-
nitaries of the Church of England, a lukewarmness on this question which ha&
not tended to raise them in public estimation.

416 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

and Arkansa territory. Sugar is grown in Louisiana and the Floridas,
rice in these two States and in Georgia and the CaroUnas, and cotton
in all except Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky. The treatment of
the slaves, he thinks, is generally good, and their food abundant. They
increase rapidly. They are not allowed land of their own : the master
feeds them. The emancipation of the slaves has not been agitated as
a practical question in America. As for the Colonization Society,
and its plan of transferring the blacks to Liberia, it can do nothing
towards that object. The difficulty felt in America is what shall be
done with the Negroes when they are freed. It is evident that rice
and sugar can be cultivated only by blacks. Besides, slavery is
guaranteed by the constitution ; and to indemnify the owners would
cost at least four hundred millions of dollars, so that no plan of
emancipation has been proposed. All that has been done is to limit
the system of slavery to the States in which it now exists. The ques-
tion of slavery has been discussed occasionally in the Northern
States ; but the publications on the subject are not allowed to circu-
late in the Southern. Nothing has been done with a view to prepare
the slaves for emancipation, by education or otherwise. The slave
states dread the effects of education, and effectual precautions have
been taken by them to prevent the diffusion of lettered knowledge.
The Americans admit that personal freedom is more valuable than
property ; but they apply that principle only to whites. He does not
know that any thing has been done to encourage or to discourage reli-
gious instruction among the slaves. He cannot see any benefit the
slaves, continuing slaves", could derive from education. He had seen
many emancipated slaves who were very good characters, but he
thought petty offences Avere frequent among that class.*

* The difficulty, after all, which the Americans deem so insuperable, that of
disposing of the slaves when free, seems to us no difficulty at all. The slaves
are now employed in agriculture; nay, sugar and rice, it is said, cannot be cul-
tivated but by blacks. We can see no good reason why the same persons may
not cultivate these articles in a state of freedom as in a state of slavery. White
men work in America : so do black men when free, and wages are given them
for their labour. We are utterly at a loss to discover what there is in this par-
ticular problem which can puzzle Mr. Ogden, or raise a single difficulty in the
mind of American statesmen, provided only they are willing to act on the
principles of eternal justice. But see to vi'hat length of wickedness the free, en-
lightened, and Christian whites of America are driven, to maintain their cruel and
usurped dominion over their black brethren. No nation values education and
instruction more highly than the United States. Every state has made a point of
establishing and supporting seminaries of learning adequate to the wants of its
citizens, and common schools are provided " for the education of the poor gratis;"
yet the benefits of education are withheld from the slaves, and even from the free
Negroes also. South Carolina, as early as 1740, passed a law to punish with a
fine of £100 any man who should teach a slave to write. Georgia followed the
example. Virginia has enacted " that any meetings of slaves, or free Negroes,
or mulattoes, at any school, or teaching them reading or writing, shall be deemed
an unlawful assembly, and the magistrate may disperse it and inflict on the of-
fender at his discretion twenty stripes." South Carolina in a later act has
declared any meeting unlawful which consists of slaves and free Negroes,

on the Extinction of Slavery. -^Evidence of Mr. Scott. 417

IV. Robert Scott, Esq. This gentleman is a Jamaica proprie-
tor, and had resided in that island from 1802 to 1826, and again for
a few months in 1828 and 1829. He had under his management at
one time 4000 slaves,* and had visited different parts of the island ;
but his concerns lay chiefly in the parishes of Hanover, St. James,
Trelav^ney, and St. Ann. He had consequently great opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the Negro character. On most planta-
tions they have as much land as they can cultivate for themselves. — •
The time alloAved them by law, twenty-six days, is not only amply
sufficient to supply all their wants, but to enable them to sell great
quantities of provisions. The usage, he says, was to give them more
time, namely, every Saturday out of crop.f Few of the slaves work
at all on Sunday. The market is on Sunday morning. | In Trelawney
the distance from the market at Falmouth is generally ten miles ; but
the people from the tov/n meet the people of the country half way.§
He gives 100 barrels of herrings in the year to 250 Negroes || (p. 330,
331).

Mr. Scott denies that, on estates of a size to afford only two spells
during crop-time (that is, all estates of the size of his own, having
200 to 250 Negroes), the Negroes work eighteen hours a day. 11 He

and mulattoes, though there be whites among them, assembling for the purpose
oi mental instruction; and the officers who are required to disperse the meeting
may inflict twenty lashes on each slave, free Negro, &c., so as to deter them from
the like unlawful assemblage in future. In Savannah any person teaching any
person of colour, slave or free, to read or write incurs a fine of thirty dollars for
each offence ; and every person of colour keeping a school to teach reading or
writing to a fine of thirty dollars, or to be imprisoned ten days and flogged with
thirty-nine stripes. Nor are they to meet for religious ivorship, but between sun-
rise and sunset. The only exception to the general bearing of these acts is in
Louisiana, where it is enacted that it shall be the duty of the owner to procure
for his sick slaves all kinds of temporal and spiritual assistance which their situa-
tion may require — a sort of death-bed charity. —

Stroud's Laws of Slavery. Philadelphia, 1827, p. 85 — 92.

* We cannot find that he is now proprietor of more estates than one, namely,
Kinloss, which in 1831 had upon it 249 slaves, and in 1823, eight years before,
296, showing a decrease in that time of 47, or nearly 2 per cent, per annum.

-f- If that were true, it would raise the number of days, estimating the time of
crop at five months, to 30.

X In point of fact the first law which limited the market to Sunday morning,
and that at eleven o'clock, was that of 1831, which is only recently in opera-
tion.

§ This is a strange assertion. No market can be held at any place, by a law
still in force (Act of 5th William and Mary, c. 6), but by appointment of jus-
tices in sessions. Let it be shown that any such intermediate markets are ap-
pointed, and what and where they are.

II That is, less than six heiTings a week for each.

^\ lie takes some pains to mystify a plain matter ; for, by what possible arith-
metic can it be made out that, where there are only two spells, and where the work
of the mill and boiling-house is continuous night and day, and where the cane-
cutting for supplying the mill goes on for twelve hours of the day, each spell, that
is, each half of the gang, should not work half the night also, or six hours more,
making eigliteen in all ? — See above, p. 338. Mr. Scott admits the work at the mill

3 I

418 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

admits, however, that it does amount to sixteen. He states, as one of
the inconveniences that would arise from the Negroes being free, that
they might ruin the master by striking work in crop-time ; but he
admitted that that was an inconvenience to which the English manu-
facturer was equally liable, if the labourers, thinking themselves not
adequately remunerated, struck for wages (p. 332 — ^335). He ad-
mitted that cane-hole digging was hard work, and that, if the people
.did not do their work, the driver must coerce them. He carried a
whip ; but he believed he did not now use it, though formerly he did,
but rarely, except by the direction of the overseer. He now uses
switches for coercion ; but seldom even these, if the people are under
proper control (p. 336).*

The slaves in Jamaica, Mr. Scott thinks, are much better olF than
the people of this country have any idea of, nor so ill off as is sup-
posed. Many of them, even of the field Negroes, by selling provisions,
pigs, and poultry, have a good deal of money. They all have pigs
and poultry, and some have cattle. The possession of property un-
questionably increases the diligence and industry of the slave. He
did not know many slaves who had been emancipated, but he never
knew any who hired themselves on an estate, except coopers and car-
penters. They regard plantation vi^ork as degrading. Large sums, how-
ever, he said were annually raised in Trelawney for therelief of people
of colour who were paupers. He was quite sure the largest proportion
was raised for people of colour, and very little for whites. A return,
however, from this very parish of Trelawney, of the distribution of the
poor's rate for the five years from 1821 to 1825 inclusive was' pro-
duced, from which it appeared that the whole sum raised in those five
years was £6896 ; and that of that sum the expense of the poor-house,
which is for the accommodation of poor whites, according to Mr,
Scott's own testimony (quest. 5064), exhausted £1766 ; and that, of
the remaining £5130, about two-thirds, or about £3420, was paid in
pensions to whites, and only about £1690 to free black and coloured
paupers — alm.ost all females of the coloured class (probably the cast-
off mistresses, with their families, of whites who had died or quitted
the country). This account is signed by James Shed den, the vestry
clerk. (Papers of 1823, No. 353). Mr. Scott, however, seemed still
to doubt the correctness of this return (p. 337 and 341).

Mr. Scott admitted that he had seen punishments inflicted to co-
erce labour, of which he disapproved, but not frequently. Without
the knowledge that there was a power to coerce them, they would not

and boiling-house to he continuous, and yet he cuts off the two hours from six
to eight in the evening, of which he makes no account in his estimate of the
slave's sleepless hours ; but there must be slaves at work during these hours as
well as during all the other hours of the week. In fact the loss of rest amounts
to nineteen hours every day instead of eighteen, at which we have placed it,

* That is, have been duly coerced into industry (see above, p. 323). But, if
the driver has no power to flog but by the overseer's order, what means the
clause in the very last slave Act (Act of 1831, § 33), .which limits the driver to
ten lashes in the absence of the overseer?

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Scott. 419

work at all ; he was quite certain of that. He thought the females
would become excessively troublesome if they could not be flogged.
They are much more difficult to manage than the men (p, 337).

When the slaves worked by task-work, they performed their day's
work much more expeditiously, finishing it by two o'clock, and having
the rest of the day for their own grounds. 'They did not work hard
at any employment, but they will work harder when a task is set, or
when they work for their own profit. He had known them carry loads
for themselves which no compulsion could have made them carry. —
They carry enormous weights to market sometinies (p. 338).

Mr. Scott is questioned as to the probability that the slave, in case
of emancipation, would be willing to recognize the master's right to
deprive him of the grounds which he had hitherto cultivated for his
own use, unless he would consent to pay a rent for it. He doubts
Vv'hether he would, but he had always known the slaves exceedingly
averse to quit the spot where they had been settled : they would re-
gard it* as an act of spoliation* (p. 339). Mr. Scott, however, is so
impressed with the disadvantage of being under compulsion, that he
thinks a slave and a free man are not to be brought into comparison
at all (p. 340). The slaves know how to make use of money very
well (p. 341). He would not deny that the Negro may, in many cases,
be levied upon for taxes, and sold into a distant part of the island,
from his family and from his provision grounds ; but this seldom
happens with sugar estates under mortgage, which most of them are
(p. 342).

Mr. Scott admits that he had never contemplated any plan by
which it would be practicable to secure the cultivation of sugar in Ja-
maica by labour for wages, because he could not conceive the thing
possiblef (p. 342).

He is asked, evidently with a view to abate the force of Mr. Taylor's
evidence, vrhether he should consider a person's experience of two
years and a half in the management of 700 Negroes, having, more-
over, been upwards of ten years in the island engaged in other pur-
suits, as competent to pronounce a judgment on such a plan ; and an-
swers, very candidly, that though he might regard any such plan
with doubt, yet " a man of observation may certainly gain a good deal

* The main condition of the problem to be solved is here wholly kept out of
view. The slave, when free, is to receive fair wages for his work ; but would he,
in that case, consider it as a spoliation that the master should say to him "If I
■pay you fair wages you must pay me a fair rent for my land ?" When was it
ever known that an emancipated plantation slave claimed to have a right to occupy
land belonging to his former master ? The circumstance of the strong attach-
ment of slaves to their domicile, which Mr. Scott affirms, is the very ground from
which we should derive the conviction that the slave, if free, would prefer to con-
tinue to occupy his present house and grounds, and to work for his master, pay-
ing a part of the wages he would earn, for the sake of retaining possession of them.

f A gentleman is brought forward by the West India body, to represent their
views, in a committee appointed to consider the measures most proper for effect-
ing the extinction of slavery, and he tells the committee that he had never even
contemplated the possibility of any such measure ! Where can he have lived fox
the last ten years ?

420 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

of experience in two years and a half. He considers, however, Mr.
Taylor's plan to be quite chimerical (p. 345—347). His reasons for this
conclusion will be found to be of a kind very naturally to be looked for
in a man who had never contemplated the subject before ; they cut
both ways. He thinks that, if the emancipated slaves had grounds of
their own, they could not be depended upon for labour ; and if their
labour were paid for in m.onev, no food would be procurable but from
abroad ; and yet he admits they might make more profit by cul-
tivating their grounds than by working on sugar estates. He gravely
doubts whether the two plans might not be combined of both grow-
ing provisions enough as they do now, and yet cultivating sugar for
wages ; and he strengthens this doubt by a vague reference to history.
Sugar lands, this experienced planter tells the committee, are not
convertible to any other purpose than sugar. He cannot deny, indeed,
that they might be easily converted into pasture ; but then, he adds,
cattle would be of no value if sugar estates were abandoned.* The
pens now rear more than the planters require. Sugar lands, he also
admits, might grow provisions (p. 348, 349).

Mr. Scott says, confidently, that the Creoles in Jamaica increase,
though the Africans may not; but his speculations on population and
the theory of labour and wages, which he has evidently contemplated
as little as he has plans of emancipation, may be passed over without
any injury to his own cause (p. 350, 351). Being further questioned,
he was led fully to admit that the slaves, being much attached to
their present homesteads, would, if made free, be glad to pay rent for
their present lands, and would be disposed to cultivate provisions to
the full extent for which they could find a market, and when they
had done that, and overstocked the market, they would gladly take
wages from the sugar and coflTee planter (p. 352).

Mr. Scott knew the maroons, and he admitted they were very well
behaved, and required no strong police to keep them in order.-
With respect to the slaves, he also admitted that if nothing unreason-
able were exacted from them they were easily managed, and patient

* Thus we learn that in Jamaica cattle are of no value but to draw canes to
the mill and sugar to the wharf! These are, doubtless, important uses. But is
he not aware that in other countries than Jamaica cattle have other still more
important purposes to answer? Is it of no importance to cheapen food? Admiral
Fleming was obliged to pay a shilling a pound in Jamaica for meat which he could
procure in Hayti for twopence a pound, while the people cf Flayti were chiefly fed
with beef. Did Mr. Scott never contemplate the effect of 330,000 emancipated
slaves being fed with beef reared in Jamaica, instead of being fed w-ith a few
miserable salt herrings imported from abroad ; or being shod, as in Hayti, with
. the leather made from the hides of the cattle that were thus eaten ? In England,
where there is a free population, cattle, he knows, is valuable as food as well as
for work. Might it not be so in Jamaica ? A sugar planter, like Mr. Scott, of
20 years' experience, has never learnt to think of cattle but for purposes of
draught. His views travel only between the cane field and the mill house, and
between the curing house and the shipping place. The pens, he says, breed more
cattle now than the planters require. He never has meditated, for one moment^
what a free population might require in the way of food.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr, Scott. 421

and submissive, although there were ordinarily on an estate of 250
slaves only three or four white persons to govern them and maintain
order. If nothing unreasonable is required, they are very obedient
and require no harsh treatment whatever (p. 352). This is an im-
portant feature in the Negro character.

Mr. Scott thought the slaves were better treated than formerly.
The Creoles require less punishment than savage Africans, and are
less frequently punished ; but he thought they worked as much and
produced as much as ever. His own slaves received no education
whatever. They went to church or chapel if they thought proper.
The clergyman ofTrelawney superintended the Negroes, if they went
to him, and they did frequently go to him. When he first went to
Jamaica he cannot say the parochial clergy paid any attention to the
slaves : the Bishop made a change, and the clergy became more alert.
The slaves he thought very imperfectly instructed indeed. The
Negroes were mostly christened ; but it did not follow from this that
they knew any thing of Christianity (p. 353).

Mr. Scott, though in charge for many years of 4000 slaves, and now
a proprietor of 250, has no idea what is the cost of rearing a slave.
He professes to know nothing of the progress of population on sugar
estates and pens ; but, he thinks, if the Negroes were educated and
civilized they would become more moral and increase faster (p. 354).

Mr. Scott however thought it possible that Negroes might be over
educated, though certainly he admitted they were not so as yet, nor
likely to be so for some time to come (p. 355).

There is now, he thinks, scarcely any profit at all from West India
property ; on the contrary, proprietors, in many instances, are getting
deeper and deeper in debt. He attributes this to the low prices of
sugar and rum, and these low prices he attributes to over-production :
more is made than can be consumed. Being asked whether it is
possible to keep up a system of over-production which can profit the
planter, and whether land therefore should not be withdrawn from
sugar cultivation, he assents to that, but says, the ruin of many must
be the consequence.* In case of emancipation land would become
valueless : no one would take it. Being asked whether there is
any country in the world where there is plenty of land to let and a
number of people to be maintained where land did not let, " Yes," says
Mr. Scott, "but there must be a different description of people to deal
with ;" and yet he admits (quest. 5387) that Negroes are human crea-
tures, influenced in the same way as whites. He admits too that the
Negro is industrious in his own grounds, and raises food for himself
and family, and buys comforts, and luxuries, and finery, though com-
pelled to work so many hours for his master ; yet now he has the
advantage of being under control : if he were free it would be very
different. — He is asked whether he thought that the desire of good
food, and fine clothing, and the luxuries of life, or the love of money.

* If men will embark in hazardous speculations, and continue to pursue them
after gain has become hopeless and loss certain, what can follow m any part of
the world, or in any mode of employment, but ruin?

422 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

supposing a man to have earned some as a slave, would cease the
moment he became free and had more time to indulge all these desires:
he reluctantly, at length, admitted that it was not in nature that they
should (p. 536, 537).

Mr. Scott being asked whether provisions, as beef, pork, butter, &c.,
might not be raised abundantly in Jamaica so as to supersede
the necessity of importing them from abroad, replied, he thought
not ; they must still have salt beef, &c., as fresh beef would not keep.*

He refers to his knowledge of history, and cites St. Domingo (where
good beef, according to Admiral Fleming, is always to be had fresh at
twopence per pound). He then dwells on the difficulties of increasing
the quantity of provisions and cattle. There would be no " labourers
except the sugar estates were abandoned." And yet Mr. Scott had.
before stated that the planters were dying of a plethora of sugar, and
this notAvithstanding no labourers could be turned from that ruinous
speculation to raise fresh beef at a fourth of the price they pay
for wretched salt beef from Cork (p. 357)!

Cane-hole digging, Mr. Scott thinks, is not such tremendous work
as might be supposed. It is not so hard as digging ditches, cutting
down hills, or filling up ravines, as is done by English labourers ; but
then he admits it to be a little hotter in Jamaica, though the Negroes
do not dislike the heat; and he admits, also, that the women of Ja-
maica dig cane-holes as well as the men : he does not say that in
England they dig ditches, cut dov/n hills, and fill up ravines.

He concludes his evidence by a statement of the clothing given
annually to his 260 slaves. It averages as follows :— About four yards
of a coarse narrow woollen cloth called PennistDnes, and about nine
yards of a coarse stuff made of tow or flax called Osnaburgh, and
about two and a half yards of check in long ells ; and this is all !

V. James Simpson, Esq., was engaged in commerce in Jamaica for
24 years nearly. He left it in 1828. He had been the representative of
many absent proprietors, being intimately acquainted with the island
generally, and particularly with Vere, Clarendon, St. Mary, St. George,
St. Andrew, St. David, Port Royal, and St. Thomas in the East, and a
little with St. Elizabeth, Manchester, and Hanover. Mr. Taylor had
been a partner of his for ten years; and, though he visited some of his
estates occasionally, Mr. Simpson was jealous of his designs and pro-
jects, and only allowed him to visit those estates Avhere the immediate
managers were prudent men, and where there was a high state of
discipline. Mr. Simpson, however, admits that he did not take
any pains to ascertain what Mr. Taylor's views and purposes were, and
he actually knew of them, though Mr. Taylor was ten years his partner,
only from hearsay. One project, however, gave him great alarm, a pro-
ject which he learned, not from Mr. Taylor himself, but from one of the

* This is certainly one of the most extraordinary reasons ever given by man
for voluntarily foregoinsc the use of wliolesome fresh meat and butter, supplied
from the daily market, and having recourse to Ireland for stale salted beef, and
pork, and butter. Would he not himself prefer good fresh beef at twopence a
pound, fresh from the slaughter, to Irish salted beef at sixpence or eightpence a
pound, full, as it often is, of rottenness and vermin ? And why might not such
a daily market exist in every part of Jamaica?

on the Extinction of Slavery.— Evidence of J. Simpson, Esq. 423

overseers, Vv'ho, doubtless, had his own private reasons for disliking
and distorting the project. The plan was that of " separating the
sexes, and taking means to prevent their intercourse ; and locking up
he women at night to prevent the men from having access to them"*
(p. 360).

Mr. Taylor, it is admitted by Mr. Simpson, disliked Jamaica, its
occupations, and society, and wished to quit them all and enter the
church. Mr. Simpson opposed his retiring, and entreated him to re-
main. In 1827, however, Mr. Simpson altered his views respecting
Mr. Taylor, and then urged him to retire from the house as strongly as
he had before pressed him to remain in it. He even forced him to
retire, and the connexion was dissolvedf (p. 360, 361).

Mr. Simpson had at one time under his charge from 7000 to 8000
slaves. He had, therefore, every opportunity, he conceives, of forming
a correct judgment of the character and circumstances of slaves ; and
his decided conviction is that, generally speaking, nay, almost univer-
sally, with some exceptions, they Vv'ould not v/ork voluntarily for wages
in the cultivation of sugar. He admits that the emancipated slaves,
at that part of St. Thomas in the Vale called Above Rocks, do supply
the markets of Spanish Town and Kingston with provisions, and that
they do frequently carry them thither, a distance of upwards of twenty
miles. There are, however, he affirms, intermediate market-places
within every five miles, at which they may sell their goods ; but he
does not mention where or what they are, or give them any name.:|:

* ^Ve cannot wonder ^either at the alarm produced by such a scheme ariiong
the overseers and attorneys of Jamaica, or at the absurdity of the exaggeration
with which Mr. Simpson, without asking Mr. Taylor for any distinct explanation,
has thought proper to bring it forward as a grave piece of evidence before a Com-
mittee of the House of Commons. Did he mean any thing more than that which
every man of common morahtymust desire — that marriage should be encouraged,
and concubinage discouraged on plantations, and that, above all, the overseers
and book-keepers should be positively interdicted from converting each estate
into a brothel, and corrupting, by their facilities of inteicoiirse, ail the young
women upon it, from the earliest age of puberty? Does not Mr. Simpson, in his
, conscience, believe that this was the extent of Mr. Taylor's non-intercourse
scheme ? and, if he does believe it, is his evidence fair evidence ? It was a
grievous mistake in Mr. Simpson to expect that his sneer against such a pro-
ject would be received in the Committee of a British House of Commons with
the derision with which it would have been listened to in a company of attorneys
and overseers meeting at his dinner table in Kingston. It furnishes a melan-
choly exemplification of the state of morals and manners in Jamaica.

t The time, therefore, of this change of feeling towards Mr. Taylor, on the
part of Mr. Simpson, seems to have been the very time v/hen Mr. Taylor and
Mr. Wildman had resolved on conducting Mr. Wild man's estates on more hu-
mane principles than had hitherto governed planting concerns in Jamaica. (See
above, p. 329).

I This discovery, nov/ first heard of, of intermediate market-places between
Above Rocks and Kingston or Spanish Town, is not a little extraordinary. Mr.
Simpson, as much stress seems laid on the circumstance, ought to have specified
them more clearly, together with the order of the justices in session by which they
have been appointed, and the name of the clerk of the market by whom its transac-
tions are regulated ; for there is a clerk of every hgally constituted market-

424 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

lie is not aware of any emancipated slaves offering themselves to cul-
tivate sugar on estates. Labourers are often wanted, but they never
offer themselves. He is persuaded the time allowed to the Negroes
for cultivating their grounds is ample, and that there is no necessity
for going, and that few slaves do go, to their grounds on Sunday*
<p. 362, 363).

Mr. Simpson is next questioned about spell-keeping in crop-time,
and he gives the same untenable account of it which has been already
<ixposed, denying that the slaves keeping spell during the night are
limited to six hours' rest in the twenty-four, in cases where the popu-
lation of the estate only allows of two spells (see above, p. 338, and p.
417). The slaves, according to Mr. Simpson, are never exhausted
by their labour. Dancing, and performing attitudes and evolutions,
and festive nights, when he visited the estates, proved how little they
had been exhausted by the labour of the day (p. 364).

Cane-hole digging seldom exceeds a third of the cane land in
cultivation, and, in some cases, very little cane-hole digging is required
(p. 365).

He is decidedly of opinion that Negroes would certainly not work
voluntarily if they had the means of procuring food. They are na-
turally indolent, and would not be induced to work so long as by
plunder or otherwise they could obtain the means of subsistence. It
is very difficult to get them to work without some stimulus or other.
The whip has been resorted to; but he had been anxious to discontinue
its use : he tried to do without it, particularly on one estate called
Albion, belonging to Mr. Robert Hibbert, of Chalfont, Bucks, having
more than 500 Negroes ; but he was forced to resume it, and made
so effectual a use of it for a time that he restored order and re-animated
industry ; and now, he understands, it is laid aside. And yet he
affirms that the Negroes do not work under the terror of the lash,
even when they do not act under its impulsef (p. 365, 366).

place in the island. And let him also state what population there is at each of
these market-places, which occur within every five miles, to arrest the progress of
the venders of provisions in their way to the markets of Spanish Town and
Kingston.

* The West Indian evidence to confute this statement is quite overwhelming,
independently of what appears in the preceding pages. See Reporter, vol. ii.
No. 41, p. 315; and vol. v. No. 92, p. 24. The unhesitating boldness of such
assertions is altogether amusing.

t Was ever any thing heard from the mouth of a reasoning being at all to be
compared to this evidence of the absolute master of the .comfort and happiness
of 7000 or 8000 human beings ? The Negroes, he affirms, will not work if free
for any thing beyond mere food ; and even not that, if they can live by plunder.
' Yet they work so well at present on Albion estate, vnthout the terror of the lash,
that there is no room to complain of either their order or industry. Now what is
the stimulus employed ? Is it wages? He does not say that it is ; and it is evident
that the stimulus of wages had never entered his mind at all as a means of excit-
ing industry ;— for, when Mr. Hibbert's 500 Negroes slackened in their industry,
he restored it, not by any such means : no, he restored it by the good old Jamaica
way — he " resumed the whip, and made some examples." The cart-whip, then
(but Mr. Simpson will not allow us to call it the cart-whip), or " the driver's
whip," for ever This is Mr. Simpson's grand specific.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. Simpson, Esq. 425

Mr. Simpson fully admits that the slaves not only work for their
masters, but that they raise sufficient food to supply themselves and
all the markets in Jamaica, and thus to buy ornamental clothing
and articles of finery, and to acquire considerable property, even to the
amount of from £2600 to £3000 ; yet he despairs of being able to per-
suade them of the reasonableness, when they become free, of paying
a rent for the use of the land, the master's property. The slave
would consider such a demand as an outrage on his own property ;
and, therefore, to expect him to work for wages, and pay rent for
land, is a scheme wholly chimerical, actually impossible, utterly
impracticable* fp. 370, 371).

Then, as to a police composed of the free people of colour and
others, in order to preserve the peace of the island, he pronounces in
the most positive and unqualified terms on its utter absurdity and
impracticabilityf (p. 371). Against Mr. Taylor's proposal of sti-
pendiary magistrates as protectors he is equally decided ; it is wild
and visionary.

Mr. Simpson is also strongly of opinion that the missionaries have
no title to give any opinion of the character and disposition of the
Negroes : knowledge so limited as theirs could afford no opportunity
of judging either of the Neero character or of their treatment and
their habits (p. 372).

He considers the Negroes in general as intelligent, and as to be
worked upon more by kindness and conciliation than by compulsion; but
he does not think them intelligent enough to understand that they must
work in a state of freedom for their own subsistence, or accept of
wages for working ; so that emancipation would necessarily be followed
by the abandonment of all cultivation, and therefore by the most per-
nicious consequences to themselves (p. 575). — If Mr. Simpson is
himself more intelligent than the Negroes, he certainly. has not the
faculty of making his views of human nature either intelligible or con-
sistent.

Mr. Simpson has known slaves who were instructed by the minis-
ters of the church of England and Scotland, and he has given them

* Is this common sense and common consistency, or is it the mere raving of
inveterate and incurable prejudice ?

f Mr. Simpson evidently had it in view by this answer to stultify his old friend
and partner Mr. Taylor; but it so happens that he has stultified along with him
the Council and Assembly of Jamaica; for, without any debate, they have
embodied into an Act dated April 28, 1832, and which we have reason to be-
lieve has actually received the royal assent, a plan of police as nearly resembling
that of Mr. Taylor as could vv'ell have been framed. We would advise him to
consult that Act forthwith. It is the 28th chapter of the 2nd of William the
Fourth. We ask no better, safer, and more efficient police for the purpose
of averting all danger from emancipation than that wliich has been so wisely
and providently planned and adopted by the local legislature. The work is
done — the machinery is ready ; and it may be considered as furnishing a test for
appreciating the respective titles of Mr. Simpson and Mr. Taylor to public con-
fidence, both on this point and on the plan of paying wages to the emancipated
slave for his labour, against which Mr. Simpson is equally furious.

3 K

426 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

instruction himself, and he has also attended Sunday schools, and he
observed that instruction produced a great improvement in their
general conduct, and a great superiority in all respects to others. He
had also admitted on one of his estates a Wesleyan missionary, with
whom he was satisfied. But he supposed, though he had no personal
knowledge of any such circumstance, that religious instruction, inju-
diciously administered, might do harm (p. 376).

When Mr. Simpson left the island Sunday markets were being dis-
continued, and Saturday markets more frequent. The slaves had
thus an opportunity of attending worship on Sundays.*

The slaves, whom he knew to possess as much as £3000, were in
the habit of hiring other persons to attend to their concerns (p. 377)
(a fact, however, not very consistent with other parts of Mr. Simpson's
evidence). These hired persons work separately, and, of course,
without compulsion. Slaves also often rent themselves of their mas-
ter, paying to him a certain proportion of their earnings ; this is
frequently done by slave mechanics by monthly or annual payments ;
but he never knew it done for field labour.f Mr. Simpson could
not recollect any instance of persons of colour possessing property
acquired by their own exertions. He found, however, that the slaves,
when improved by religious instruction, became more temperate and
more industrious, and thus increased their personal property ; and, he
thinks, this effect of religious instruction is perfectly well known to all
planters : they are deeply sensible of it. J

Mr. Simpson says he was in the habit of giving to his slaves,
for the purpose of religious instruction, as much in some cases as one
day in the week. This he represents as having been generally done ;
and he cites the fact as a decisive proof of the universal desire to give
religious instruction to the slaves (p. 380). ||

Mr. Simpson denies most stoutly that there is any severity in the
treatment of slaves, or that there is any difficulty in their obtaining
redress for any well-founded complaint ; but that they are very apt
to complain on slight or no grounds. And, in illustration of this fact,
he tells a long story of a complaint preferred, not by a slave, but by
a white medical gentleman, against an overseer with whom he had

* The utter untruth of this statement we shall take another opportunity of
exposing more fully.

f And can this be wondered at ?

X We shall never cease our astonishment at the evidence of this planter.

II We must frankly say that we greatly doubt this statement. Mr. Simpson
must certainly labour under some defect of memory. We, therefore, call upon
him to name the estate or estates under his charge on which a day in the week
was so given to the slaves for their religious instruction, together with the year or
years in which such grants were made, and the person whom he employed, on
the day thus appropriated, to convey to the slaves this religious instruction, and
who, we presume, must have been some minister or missionary. We are willing to
stake the accuracy of the whole of Mr. Simpson's evidence on the correctness or
incorrectness of this one fact, when established by adequate proof. The original
plantation journals must still be in existence; and we are willing to submit to their
inspection as the test of its truth.

on the Extinction of Slavery .—Evidence of J. Simpson, Esq. 427

quarrelled, and which, on investigation, proved to have had no foun-
dation in truth. This story brings out incidentally a circumstance of
some importance. It is admitted that formerly it was very possible
for masters or overseers to employ force to subject the slaves under
them to their licentious appetites. But, adds Mr. Simpson, such a
thing would now be impossible : no man would dare to attempt it ; or
if he did the female, on repairing to a magistrate, would obtain in-
stant redress* (p. 381).

There then follows, in pages 382 to 390, an examination of Mr.
Simpson on West Indian economics, in which we shall not attempt to
follow him, because to us it is utterly unintelligible, in many parts,
we can say with truth, most inaccurate, and totally at variance with
notorious facts (p. 382 — 386).

The value of the clothing given to the slaves, Mr. Simpson esti-
mates at 355. or 405. a head. On turning to Mr. Scott's evidence
(see above, p. 422), we find his account (not one of mere estimate,
but of actual distribution) to be somewhat different. It may be thus
stated : — 4 yards of pennistones, 5s. ; 9 yards of Osnaburgh, 45. 6d.;
2f yards of check, 25. : in all II5. 6d. But let it be taken with all
charges at 155., and we shall still be very far below Mr. Simpson's es-
timate (p. 386).

One of the allowances Mr. Simpson states to be regularly made to
the slave on an estate is about three shillings' worth weekly of sugar
and rum, all the year round. This of itself would make for each slave
£7. I65. a year; and would amount to about 3 cwt. of sugar and
50 gallons of rum to each in a year. Can this possibly be true? —
There must be some strange habit of miscalculation or some singular
defect of memory about this witness. It must be admitted that Mr,
Simpson has guarded against the charge of wilful inaccuracy ; for he
has told us (quest. 5756 and 5757) that it is utterly out of his power
(though he has had charge of upwards of 7000 Negroes belonging to
absent proprietors, and still, we presume, has charge, by means of his
commercial house in Kingston, of a considerable number) to give in-

* ]\Tr. Simpson may possibly have been acquainted with the Rev. Mr. Trew,
the late Rector of St. Thomas in the East, in Jamaica. Let him, then, turn to
the testimony of that gentleman, as he will find it in the 4th volume of the Anti-
Slavery Reporter, No. 76, pp. 107 and 108, for a contradiction of every part of
his present apologetical statement ; and he has only to consult the Index to
that work for numerous proofs of the inaccuracy of the assertion so confidently
made by him of the certainty of redress for even undisputed acts of cruelty. The
contrary stands on official documents, which cannot be contradicted, and all
of recent occurrence. Besides, let us ask Mr, Simpson to point out a single
clause in any one act of the Jamaica statute book which, down to the year 1832, in-
flicts the very slightest penalty on any overseer who puts a female slave in the
stocks all night, and works her all day in the field for weeks together ; or who
orders that same female to have her limbs exposed naked to the gaze of the whole
gang, and to receive, upon her bared posteriors, 39 lashes of the cart-whip, and
even to repeat these 39 lacerations the moment die former wounds are healed.
We challenge him (and we permit him to call Mr. Burge, the late Attorney-
General of Jamaica, to aid him in making out his case) to point out any
such law.

428 Report of a Committee of the House of Coynmon^

formation respecting the various items of expense attending West
Indian estates. Of one thing, indeed, he seems to be quite certain,
namely, that on the Duke of Buckingham's estate of Hope the Ne-
groes have the opportunity of realizing about £125 annually for every
three acres of land they may be able to cultivate on the 1000 acres of
land attached to that estate, and appropriated to their use ; so that,
supposing the number of able slaves upon it to be one-third of its po-
pulation, that population being, in 1830, 368, the annual income
within their reach would amount to about £15,500. Is this quite cre-
dible ?

There follows, at pages 391 and 392, a not very seemly attempt to
put the credit due to the representations of Admiral Fleming in com-
petition with those of Admiral Halsted and of Mr. Simpson ; but, we
apprehend, with pretty much the same success which we have already
shown to have attended the attempt to discredit the statements of Mr.
Taylor : but we pass over that part of the evidence as wholly imma-
terial to the real objects of the enquiry.

Mr. Simpson farther testifies that from the time he had taken
charge of estates, which was about the year 1817 or 1818, he had
done all he could to encourage marriage amongst the slaves ; and
that marriage was accordingly frequent* (p. 394).

The emancipated Negroes employ themselves in different ways.
They are seldom seen in distress. Then come some admissions of the
comforts and luxuries that slaves are enabled to procure, but which
they would not, according to Mr. Simpson, have the same facilities of
procuring when they are free. — There is such an utter extravagance
in S4ipposing that a man whose seven days in the week are his own
should have fewer facilities of accumulating property than the man
who has only twenty-six week-days in the year and his Sundays,
that we are at some loss to divine Mr. Simpson's end in giving such
evidence. He cannot expect it to be received as true (quest. 5931).
But what are these facilities ? The horses, and cattle, and waggons, and
wains of their masters and of themselves. And this is said by one who^

* The parishes in which Mr. Simpson states himself to have been chiefly con-
cerned are Vere, Clarendon, St. Mary, St. George, St. Andrew, St. David, Port
Royal, and St. Thomas in the East. Now we have parliamentary returns of
the marriages which took place in these parishes of Jamaica, from 1808 to
1825 inclusive, the very period during which Mr. Simpson exercised his large
powers; and the results during those seventeen years are as follows, showing clearly
that marriages cannot have been very frequent, and that in some parishes they have
been remarkably rare, viz. —
Vere . containing 8,000 slaves marriages in^seventeen years 2

;, 3

176

161
201

„ 27

„ 2643

From St. Andrew the returns are wanting for the last five years (see the Par-
liamentary Papers for 1823, No. 347, and for 1 826, No. 353). The result in St.
Thomas in the East is owinsr to the zeal of the Rev. Mr. Trew.

Clarendon

^,

17,000

St. Mary

jj

25,000

St. George

5>

12,000

St. David

?7

8,000

Port Royal

J)

" 6,000

St. Thomas in

the East

26,000

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. Simpson, Esq. 429

living in Kingston for twenty-four years, must have been the Aveekly
witness how few of the slaves coming to the Kingston market had any
means of conveyance but their heads, on which their loads were
brought into town on the Sunday morning (p. 398, 399).

Mr. Simpson does not believe in the efficacy of wages to induce the
slaves to work. He admits, however, that during his twenty-four years'
stay in Jamaica, and with his extensive means of making experi-
ments, he had never tried the effect of wages on the slave, nor endea-
voured to ascertain whether he might not work for remuneration as
well as from compulsion. This is a remarkable fact, and at least
explains Mr. Simpson's prejudice against free labour. He says, cane-
hole digging and the whole work of a sugar estate is far from laborious;
for women perform it as well as men: and yet he is quite confident that
Negroes, when free, will never be prevailed upon, by any inducement,
to cultivate sugar (p. 400) !

Mr. Simpson is again examined about night work and spell keep-
ing in crop, and again puzzles himself and the committee most com-
pletely. It is evident that Mr. Simpson never kept spell himself, or
he would have been able to make the matter intelligible.

Mr. Simpson states the fact of a naval officer having gone on an
estate as a guest, and having drawn up a long string of questions,
which he addressed to one of the book-keepers to be answered, and
the book-keeper answered many of them ; and this fact is produced
as proving the liberality of the planters of Jamaica (p. 402). Mr.
Simpson, however, ought in fairness to have given the sequel of this
afi'air, which the reader will find in a note below.*

Mr. Simpson affirms (quest. 6011) that he, the attorney of 7000
slaves, never knew of any whip being used in the field in Jamaica. —
This is certainly a most extraordinary assertion ; and it proves most
incontestibly either that Mr. Simpson has lost his memory or that he
is determined at all hazards to whitewash slavery. The assertion, we
take it upon us to say, is so manifestly untrue as of itself to render
the whole of his evidence absolutely valueless, f

* The book-keeper in question lived in the year 1824 on Yarmouth, in Vere,
an estate belonging to Lord Dudley, and was a very warm partizan of the pro-
slavery cause. He wrote many papers in the Royal Gazette, during the years
1823 and 1824, under the assumed signature of "The Hermit in Vere," for which
Mr. Simpson may refer to the files of those Gazettes at the Colonial club-room,
A naval officer visited Yarmouth, and certainly gave to this book-keeper a long list
of very pertinent questions, which the book-keeper undertook to answer. A
copy of those questions is now in this country. They were brought hither by
the book-keeper himself, who was deprived of his employment, and forced to quit
Jamaica, for having dared to listen for one moment to such an application. His
previous services to the pro-slavery cause availed him nothing ; and he was ac-
tually persecuted to such a degree that he was forced to return to England, in
consequence of the determination of the planters to refuse him employment. He
convinced some planter in this country, we believe Mr. Watson Taylor, that all
this persecution was unmerited, and he was sent back by him to one of his es-
tates, where he soon after died. And this is Mr, Simpson's exemplification of the
liberality of Jamaica planters!

t We need go no further to prove the utter falsehood of Mr Simpson's state-

430 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

VI. William Mier, a native of the United States. He pos-
sessed in Georgia 500 slaves ; and, from his knowledge of the Negro
character, is led to doubt whether they would be disposed to work
for wages. Slaves are very seldom emancipated in Georgia. The
Americans are very tenacious of this species of property. They value
it more than gold itself. No publications relative to slavery are per-
mitted in Georgia. Though half of the Georgia slaves are Africans, yet
they increase at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum ; and the increase
continued to 1822. The labour of growing and pounding rice was
particularly hard (p. 366 — 369).

VII. The Rev. John Shipman, a Wesleyan Missionary. — The
whole of this gentleman's examination turned on the wholly unim-
portant resolutions adopted by some of the Wesleyan Missionaries
in Jamaica in 1824, and afterwards disallowed by their superiors at
home(p. 405— 416).

VIII. The Rev. Robert Young, another Wesleyan Misssionary.
— This gentleman's examination is also chiefly directed to that which
forms the subject of Mr. Shipman's examination. Mr. Young gives
it as his opinion that the justice, mercy, bi'otherly kindness, and
charity of the Gospel are unfriendly to slavery, and in their full deve-
lopement must put an end to every system of oppression, and liberate
every slave. He did not think that, with the knowledge the slaves
now possessed, they could be detained in bondage much longer.
Slavery is the parent of numberless vices ; it corrupts both the master
and the slave ; the principles of Christianity are therefore directly
opposed to it, and without abolishing slavery altogether he did not
think its evils could be obviated. At the time that he was in the island
there was perfect impunity for any outrage committed on a slave, if
there was no evidence to prove it but that of slaves. He was five

inents on this point than the pages of the Royal Gazette, and other papers of
Jamaica, during the session of the Assembly in 1826, when the disallowed slave
act of that year was under discussion. It was not even proposed on that occa-
sion that the driving-ivhip in the field should be abolished, but merely that the
cat should be substituted for the cart-whip in the coercion of labour. " If we
adopt such an innovation," said Mr. Hilton, " in the established usages of the
colony, now that the Duke of Manchester is about to leave the island, the slaves
will imagine that our conduct has been disapproved by the king, and that we
have been compelled to relinquish the whip, and with it every means of punish-
ment and restraint." Mr. Mair declared that the slaves preferred " the cart-whip"
to every other instrument of punishment, as being more manly, ' switches, &c.,
being only fit for children. Others confirmed the fact of the preference of " the
cart-whip" to switches, as in the case of that instrurhent there were limits, but
not to the use of switches. Many of our readers will recollect Mr. Barrett's
speech on that occasion. The whole of it turns on the use of the "cart-whip,"
which he declares to be a horrid instrument. Mr. Barrett is now in England,
and he and Mr. Simpson may settle the matter between them. Mr. Simp-
son's words are, " I never knew of the cart-whip being used." This is a most
complete stultification both of Mr. Barrett and of the Jamaica Assembly, if it
be not rather a complete stultification of Mr. Simpson himself.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of W. Shand, Esq. 431

years in Jamaica, and left it in 1826. The flogging of females he
regards as an outrage on all decency, directly opposed to every feel-
ing of Christianity, and calculated to sour and brutalize the minds of
all concerned.

IX, William Shand, Esq., went first to Jamaica in 1791, left
it in 1823, returned in January 1825, and quitted it finally in May
1826. The number of slaves under his charge was from 18,000 to
20,000, on estates in almost every parish in the island. He resided
for a considerable part of the time in Vere, Clarendon, St. Andrew's,
and St. Catherine's. He was long engaged in the management of
estates and had therefore an opportunity of being acquainted with the
Negro character. Mr. Shand begins with affirming that six days is
quite sufiicient to enable the slave to raise more than is necessary for
him for the whole year, so that he has twenty week days, three holi-
days, and all the Sundays, to do what he pleases with. The allowance
of "salt fish is about 450 or 500 barrels for 1230 Negroes.* The old
and infirm are generally attended to by their own families. If they
have no families, the master provides.

Mr. Shand mystifies the subject of spell and night work in the same
extraordinary way in which we have seen it already done by his brother
planters; but we need not recur to that topic (p. 430). •

Mr. Shand never saw any gloom in the slaves. They are more con-
tented and better provided for than the lower classes in this country
and Scotland, and their labour is much lighter. The great mass of
emancipated slaves are very idle, frequently keep slave women, and
are in a great measure supported by them. They generally remain on
the master's estate, living with women upon it. He never knew any of
them work in the field. He knew no instance of freed slaves working
for wages. They live very much by pilfering their neighbours' coffee.
A man of observation in three years may learn a good deal ; but Mr.
Taylor's plans were not much liked in Jamaica. He thought differently
of slaves from all around him, and treated them differently. He was
not, in Mr. Shand's opinion, competent to be a witness respecting the
Negro's situation and character. He had not been regularly bred a
planter (p. 431—434).

In many situations the Negro, after he has established a certain
quantity of provisions, may rear food for himself by one day's labour
in the year, and he knew of no situations where he might not do so by
a week's labour or even less. A Negro, indeed, may almost subsist on
what nature produces, with merely the slight trouble of collecting it.
Every Negro may have all kinds of articles if he chooses to be in-
dustrious, but very few have the luxuries they might have. They
would not be generally disposed to work in order to gratify artificial
wants. Emancipated Negroes do not, either in Jamaica, or in St.
Domingo, or in Trinidad, acquire industrious habits, nor are they useful
and industrious. In Jamaica, some are tradesmen; some live with
slave women on estates, and are extremely idle; and others by receiv-

* That is only, on the average, four or five herrings a week to each.

432 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

ing stolen goods. If the slaves were made free, they would be exactly
in the state of the Negroes of St. Domingo. He never knew any-
Negro work in the field after being made free : nothing useful is to be
expected from them, and least of all sugar planting. Those who live
in towns acquire no property : what they have has been bequeathed to
them. He does not recollect an instance of any who have acquired
property by their own exertions. If the blacks are made free, neither
white nor coloured persons can remain there. Nothing could be done
by a police to preserve due subordination (p. 434 — 437).

Several years ago the established church was doubled in Jamaica, and
many places of worship, both of the churches of England and Scotland
and of dissenters, built. He believes the motives for doing so were very
sincere. The slave population of Jamaica have since made very great
advances. He knew none of the missionaries, and was not for encourag-
ing them ; some of them he believed to be bad men, though there may
be good men among them. It is most impolitic for the slave to be of
one religion and the master of another. He employed the curate of
Clarendon, at £100 a year,, to teach the people on his two properties
and to read prayers twice a week. He does not believe it is much the
practice to employ curates in this way, but he always told his overseers
to bring up the Negroes when the clergyman chose to come. The
planters are well disposed to give religious instruction to the slaves,
but their means are very limited. The imposts on them are so heavy
that they cannot afford additional expense. He objects, however, to
any but oral instruction. If prudently conducted, religion would not
be hostile to slavery. He himself gave no encouragement to mission-
aries, or to any but duly authorized teachers. Negroes are so prone
to complain, that it was necessary to restrain his feelings lest mischief
should follow from encouraging them. He found it scarcely possible
to carry into effect any plan of task work. Sugar land is not appli-
cable to any other purpose, and, as for converting it to pasture, there
would be no demand for cattle without sugar to occasion it. The infirm
slaves are generally provided for by their relations, who act very kindly
to each other, and are willing to Vv-ork for their support. If relations
cannot support them, then the master supports them (p. 438—440).

When Mr. Shand was a book-keeper, he had to be on duty in crop-
time for eighteen hours and a half. Even though in crop-time the
Negro should work six hours of each night as well as all day, this does
not equal the labour performed by people in this country, who work
much harder than in Jamaica. The boatswain of the mill carries his
whip with him. Mr. Shand maintains that to work twelve hours of the
day the v.'hole year, and six hours more during crop, is lighter work than
that of labourers in this country, who, in many cases, work longer than
the Negro does even in crop-time. His own cart-man in this country
works longer and harder. He has, it is true, no driver at his back ; and
glad would Mr. S. be to get rid of the driver and his whip (p. 441).

Mr. Shand differs not only from all the witnesses opposed to him on
principle, but from the West Indians who have preceded him, in his
views of the Negro's taste for luxuries and conveniences, and the pains
he would take to acquire them. He concedes snch a taste to very

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of W. Shand, Esq. 433

few, and denies it to the mass. He thinks them not equal to the Euro-
peans in intellect, and this because they are not inventors. Yet he ad-
mits they are quick in acquiring knowledge, and acute in making a
bargain. He admits, likewise, that few slaves are content with the
clothing given them by their masters, but purchase better clothing for
themselves. Mr. Shand's effort, however, throughout his evidence, is to
reduce the measure of the slave's ideas of comfort and convenience to
almost the lowest point that can support life ; few do more. Contrary
to the testimony of all his brother colonists, he says the slave does far
less for himself than for his master; taking twenty days in his own
grounds to do the work of one. In short, if Mr. Shand is to be
believed, we must bid adieu to all those tales of comfort and happiness
by which the slave is raised so high above the British peasant, and view
him as a gay, unthinking, reckless being, making no provision beyond
the merest necessities of animal life. He admits there are, or rather
may be, exceptions; but such is the general view he labours to convey,
except when surprised into facts at total variance with the theory that
a Negro will do nothing from the desire of bettering and improving
his condition, but merely from a desire to satisfy his hunger and es-
cape the lash of the cart-whip. It would be endless to follow him in
all his vague, tortuous, inconsistent, and inconsequential statements
on this subject : we can only convey, as we have endeavoured, a
general impression of their character and bearing (p. 459 — 461).

Mr. Shand says he is friendly to religious instruction, but he would
have it given by the established church. He distrusts the missionaries,
although he is acquainted with none of them personally. He has
heard of their misconduct only from others ; he knows himself nothing
against any of them (463).

Mr. Shand affects to know something of the statistics of Hayti, though
it does not appear that he has visited it as Admiral Fleming has done ;
but he states that the blacks in Hayti earn only 7s. a year each, for
the only way of valuing wealth, according to him, is to divide the
value of exports from any country by the number of its inhabitants!
He concludes, therefore, with singular acuteness, that they not only
are not clothed with British manufactures, but with any manufactures
at all. He believes, in short, that the cultivators of Hayti are in a
state of the most degraded poverty that can be conceived, next to
savage life (p. 464).

Is it possible for the blindness of ignorance and prejudice com-
bined to go beyond this, which we presume will be dignified with the
name of testimony ? After reading it, let any one who wishes to see
the full force of the distortions of prejudice turn to the evidence of
Admiral Fleming respecting Hayti (see above, p. 385).

Mr. Shand, who has made his fortune by being the attorney of ab-
sentee proprietors, pleads for the profitableness of absenteeship, and
thinks an ov/ner may gain by living on one side of the Atlantic, and
leaving it to an agent to manage his plantation on the other. The
case of Mr. Wildman is an awfid example of the danger of owners
not visiting and managing their own properties. A practised attorney,
like Mr. Shand, would not have been guilty of the folly of preferring

3 L

434 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

the comfort and happiness of the slaves as his first object, and the
owner's gain as merely secondary. And yet he cannot deny the advan-
tage generally of a man's managing his own concerns ; but he thinks
the case of the West Indies peculiar. The business of a Jamaica agent
requires a high degree of information, so that the fruits of such agency
may be highly beneficial to the employer, notwithstanding the ex-
pense that may attend it, and the absolute freedom from all effectual
control of the employer, arising from distance (p. 465, 466).

Mr. Shand is himself at present the proprietor of 1200 slaves. He
does not know whether they have increased or decreased, but he
thinkstheyh.a.ve increased on some properties and decreased on others.*
He cannot state any satisfactory reason why slaves should increase in
the United States and not increase in Jamaica (p. 466, 467).

The drivers, who are slaves themselves, possess, according to Mr.
Shand, to a certain extent, the power of correction (p. 469).

* It must strike our readers with some surprise that this experienced planter,
Mr. Shand, should be able to give no more satisfactory account of the progress of
population on his own estate, and that, on that very point to which every man of
the commonest feeling of humanity would look with intense anxiety, as the only
sure criterion of the well-being and comfort of his dependents, he should scarcely
be able to give a single definite answer, — nay that, even in matters on which a
perfect stranger to his concerns might acquire information, he himself should be
most miserably uninformed. What then must have been the state of information
possessed by the proprietors of the 18,000 or 20,000 slaves who, during Mr.
Shand's residence, entrusted him with their management? Before we conclude
this note, our readers will have discovered our reasons for these remarks.

Mr. Shand says that he is now the possessor of 1200 slaves. In the month
of March, 1831, the number he appears to have had in Clarendon (and he has
not said that he has estates elsewhere), was 881. namely, on Kellett's 433, on the
Burn 135, on St. Tooley's 206, and on Mammee Gully 107. Three years
earlier, that is in March, 1828, the numbers on the same properties were, on Kel-
lett's 464, on the Burn 151, on St. Tooley's 210, and on Mammee Gully 118:
the whole number being then 943, exhibiting a decrease in these three years of
62, or at the enormous rate of upwards of 2 per cent, per annum. Now surely
Mr. Shand ought to have known this. And there is not only this aggregate de-
crease, but there is a decrease of each separate estate, though he affirms there
has been an increase on some of them. The decrease on Kellett's is 31, or
nearly 2J per cent, per annum ; on the Burn 16, or upwards of 3^ per cent, per an-
num; on Mammee Gully 11, or 31 per cent, per annum ; and only on St. Too-
ley's as low as -^ per cent per annum. What a dreadful waste of human life
have we here I Had Mr. Shand's slaves increased at the rate of the slaves in the
United States, or of the maroons in Jamaica, the number in 1828 of 943, in 1831
would have grown to 1012, instead of having sunk to 881, making an actual
destruction of human life among this gentleman's Clarendon slaves of 131 in
three years ! ! Now, after this, what reliance is to be placed on Mr. Shand's re-
presentations ? He evidently can have no title to claim the weight of a single
feather to be given to his evidence, or deducted from that of Mr. Taylor or any
other witness, on the ground of his experience or local knowledge. And, as for his
attempt to apologise for the decrease of his slaves, on the ground that some are
Africans, he has only to turn to the evidence of Mr. Mier, which states that in
Georgia, with a population half Afirican, the slaves increased at the rate of 2 per
eent.per annum, and yet that their employment was the hardest of all, namely,
gcowing and pounding rice (see the evidence of Mr. Mier, p. 368).

on the Extinction of Slavery .—-Evidence of W. Shand, Esq. 435

Mr. Shand admits that the time allowed the slave by law is only
26 week-days, with three or four holidays, in the year, besides Sun-
days. The master may sometimes give them a few more days. He
admits that all sorts of necessary food may be raised in Jamaica,
without resorting to any foreign supply. There could be no starvation
or any want of food in case of emancipation, if people chose to labour.
He never applied to any emancipated slave to work on an estate
for wages. He is asked, since slaves, he admits, often labour volun-
tarily, why he thinks they would cease to labour when they become
free, and his answer is that he really cannot tell, but such is the
practical fact : he is sure few of them live by industry (p. 470, 471).

There are few slaves in Jamaica, however old and infirm, who can-
not raise their own food ; and, if they should not, their relations help
them, or, failing that, the master supports them (p. 474). Mr. Shand
speaks of his having 1230 slaves. In Avhat part of the island are the
350 placed who are over and above his 880 in Clarendon ? (p. 474.)

Mr. Shand preferred the English and Scotch church to the Method-
ists, for this reason, among others, that the Methodists teach predes-
tination, and the Church of Scotland does not ! He knew nothino-
personally of the Missionaries, but he had heard much against them
(p. 477, 478).

Mr. Shand had very frequently, on the complaints of slaves, dismissed
overseers for misconduct, severity, and harsh treatment (p. 480).

The visionary views he attributed to Mr. Taylor were " his fancying
that he could manage the slaves in a dift'erent way from others, with-
out using the whip or punishing them." In the present state of
things he doubted very much whether they could be managed, either
for the advantage of the master or of the slave, without the whip, or
some such means as the whip. It has been tried to do without it ;
but it is found impossible to get labour without it, especially since the
excitement caused by the discussions on slavery in England, which
create discontent, and give occasion to punishments which would not
otherwise be necessary. He thinks the excitement thus caused ha«
increased punishments ; and he does not believe that any thing can
now be done by the Colonial legislature to ameliorate the condition
of the slaves, their excitement making increased severity necessary.

When Mr. Shand made the extravagant statements that a day in
some situations, and in others six days in the year, were quite suffi-
cient to provide food for a slave and his family, he must have had in
view an established plantain-walk of adequate extent. He entirely
omitted, however, all consideration of the time required for clearing
wood land for such a purpose, for digging holes, and for bringing and
planting the shoots ; and further, that a year of careful attention
must precede his reaping any fruit from it, besides considerable labour
afterwards in keeping it in order. All this he seemed to have over-
looked. But, at the close of his evidence, we find him referring to
the starvation and ruin which might ensue if the Negro were to de-
pend on this easy mode of providing for his wants. " If the slaves
cultivate that species of provision which is most liable to injury by a.

436 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

hurricane, the consequences would be very serious indeed, and the
loss very great."

We conclude with very heartily thanking Mr. Shand, as well as
Mr. Simpson and Mr. Scott, not only for their concessions and con-
tradictions, but for the invaluable light they have thrown on the whole
subject of West Indian plantership. They have done more for the
Negro race in the space of a very few days than they ever dreamt of
doing, and have much more effectually promoted the cause of that
emancipation they so seriously dread than the stoutest anti-slavery
witness who came before the committee.

X. Bryan Adams, Esq. — This witness is brought forward, we
presume, in the hope of shaking, if not overturning, the powerful and
convincing evidence of Admiral Fleming. He quitted the Caraccas
in May 1832, after a residence there of about eighteen months. He
had gone 500 miles into the interior and visited the finest plantations of
cocoa, coffee, and sugar in that country. The finest he saw, Elisendas,
is cultivated in coffee by 375 slaves. He is not aware of any estates
cultivated by free blacks. One estate, Belmont, within three miles of
Caraccas, has 50,000 coffee trees and fifty acres of cane land, all
under irrigation, and more than 1000 acres of wood land, and there
are upon it twenty-three slaves.* The next question however is deci-
sive of the extent of this gentleman's intelligence ; for, being asked
whether he knew of any emancipation of slaves having occurred at the
Caraccas, he replies, " I recollect something about it ; but I do not
believe it ever did take place" (p. 444).

Sugar is exported from the Caraccas in increasing quantities. He
saw 2000 barrels come in from one estate, of 6 or 7 cwt., each for ship-
ment to the United States ; it was very excellent sugar. He had
been impressed with the idea that unless severity were used with the
slaves they would not work ; but he found, on the contrary, that
where no severity was used things went on better, and he instances
Elisendas estate. f He saw however a whip in use at Tapatapa, an
estate of an Englishmen, Mr. Alderson (p. 444).

He contradicts himself however about free labour ; for he says,
those who have not labourers enough of their own hire peons and
native persons of colour, who are hardly to be distinguished from the
slaves. The native Indians are very industrious and very faithful.
The slave possesses the power of demanding to purchase his freedom,

* It js obvious that Mr. Adams roust have made some mistake here, and
indeed contradicts himself afterwards about estates not being cultivated by free
persons. The twenty-three slaves on Belmont could not possibly perform
a tithe of the work upon it : 50,000 coffee trees would require 400 acres of
land ; does he mean to say that twenty-three slaves planted, and weeded, and
pruned these, gathered the coffee and pulped it, besides cultivating fifty acres of
cane ? It is utterly impossible.

f If he mistook about Belmont, as he evidently must have done, he may
also mistake about Elisendas, and there may have been on that estate also only
a small proportion who were slaves.

on the Extinction of Slavery .—Evidence of W. Watson, Esq. 437

or he may change his master. The soil is fertile and provisions very
abundant. They have as much ground as they can cultivate, are
clothed, and have a pound of beef a day. He does not think the
present slaves would be disposed to work if emancipated. He thinks
a general rising would follow emancipation. He afterwards frankly
admitted that he was quite incompetent to speak about questions of
freedom and slavery. He had not investigated, them. He had seen
numbers of labourers working on plantations; but he never asked the
question whether they were slaves or free. If the labourers had been
chiefly free, they might have been so without his knowing it. He
admitted that Admiral Fleming had been very diligent, and that he
had access to the very best sources of information. The people of
colour associate generally on good terms with the whites. Tiie people
of colour are generally the friends of order. On an estate which he
attempted to purchase, formerly belonging to Bolivar, there were a
very few slaves working conjointly with free persons. They worked
together without difficulty or confusion (p, 444 — 452).

XI. Mr. JoHK Ford Pike. This gentleman had been in Cuba at
different times since 1819, but he had only been for two days in the
interior, and he had no opportunity of knowing any thing of free
labour, nor of the cultivation of the island. He had been brought
from Wales all the way to London to give evidence ; but he said
he knew nothing of the matter (p. 452).

XII, William Watson, Esq., had been in the Caraccas from 1810
to 1814. Estates were then cultivated partly by slave labour and
partly by free. The free worked with the slaves when they were
wanted, which was chiefly in crop time. He had known many in-
stances where slaves were managed wholly by persons who had themx
selves been slaves. The managers of estates were mostly coloured or
black persons, who had been emancipated. This was common in the
Vale of Chaldo, five or six miles from the town. He has had no con-
nection with the Caraccas since 1814. But while he was there he
thought the free black were generally employed in cultivation, and
that they were a better sort of people than he had seen in our islands.
Great confidence was placed in them. The whole system of Spanish
slavery is different from ours : it is much milder, and the consequence of
this mildness is an improvement of character. He had no doubt at all
that the blacks were, when well treated, susceptible of the same mo-
tives which influence other men. The most powerful stimulus in the
world to a man is labouring to gain his freedom. In Louisiana the
planters say that they get a great deal more work when they put the
slaves on task work ; and, if the stimulus of freedom were generally
tried, and men were allowed to free themselves by their exertions,
they would be much m.ore industrious, and would not cease to be so
Avhen free, though, in a country furnishing easily the comforts and con-
veniences of life, many might relax when free. He noticed the slaves
after emancipation generally at work, raising provisions and other
things. In his time the estates had slaves enough to keep the fields

438 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

in order, except in crop time, when they called in free labourers.
There was a very considerable free coloured population in the Caraccas,
who were in general very industrious. He had been in Mexico, but
had never seen any slaves there. The great mass of the population
are a mixed race, and those of the Africans were deemed as industrious
as the rest. They were not more degraded, or more idle, than the
others. The people of Mexico generally do not exert themselves
much. The stimulus of want could not be made very strong in that
country. There was no import of sugar into Mexico, nor any export
of sugar from it. A great deal of sugar is consumed in the country, and
it is dear (p. 452—457).

XIII. Herbert Townsetstd Bowen, Esq., had been in Trinidad,
but his attention was not directed to cultivation, or to the state of the
slave population. He had nothing to do but with one plantation, and
on that he did not reside ; it was a plantation of cocoa, and coffee,
and cinnamon, and cloves. He paid an overseer 400 dollars for
managing, and he hired six or seven peons, but the speculation was
not successful. The emancipated slaves there mostly employed them-
selves as tradesmen, or in raising Guinea grass, or provisions. It ap-
peared, from the reports of the protector, that a considerable number
of slaves had purchased their freedom. The peons were paid wages,
at the rate of half a dollar a day (p. 457 — 459).

XIV. Richard Garrett Amyot, the Colonial registrar of slaves,
produced certain tables of population, to which we shall hereafter ad-
vert more particularly (p. 484, 485, and p. 519 — 522).

XV. Samuel Baker, Esq., had visited Jamaica in 1816, and af-
terwards in 1817, and for a short time in January, 1832. He landed
in Manchester, and went afterwards to the north side of the island.
He thought the slaves much improved, since his former visits, in their
clothing and comforts. He had thought them comfortable before,
but now they were better dressed on Sundays. He talked with the
head man of Dumfries estate, in St. James (an estate in the hands of
the trustees of William Fairclough, with 198 slaves upon it). This
man had distinguished himself by defending the property in the ab-
sence of the whites, and Mr. Baker made him a recompense for his
conduct. He was reluctant to give any opinion as to the cause of the
rebellion. He was a Baptist, and attended the Baptist chapel built
in that neighbourhood. He expressed himself as comfortable and
satisfied, and as not desiring any change. He gave Mr. Baker to
understand, however, that the general feeling of the slaves was to-
wards revolt, and that they could not be depended upon. Mr. B. also
conversed with the Negro, a respectable man, who attended him as
servant ; but he could give no information, for the people had never
left the place, but staid at home to defend it. The Negroes generally
were sulky, and did not choose to answer his questions. He thinks that
there was a general disposition in the slaves to be content with their
lot, till the late excitement. The head man on Dumfries told him

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of S. Baker, Esq. 439

the Missionaries received certain sums from the Negroes who attended
them. He paid for his seat in chapel, and also paid a macaroni, or
quarter dollar, when he attended the sacrament : he did not say how
frequently. He heard nothing of the part the Baptists took in the
insurrection, except that it was called the Baptist war. He had never
heard the slaves say any thing, good or bad, of the Missionaries. He
had attended the Scotch place of worship in St. James, and found it
well attended by decent, orderly slaves (p. 485 — 487).

The chief object of bringing Mr. Baker forward appears to have
been to falsify the statement of Mr. Knibb that he had been employed
by the custos, Mr. Miller, to examine some rebel prisoners ; but all
Mr. Baker could say was that Mr. Miller had not told him so, and that,
from what he knew of Mr. Miller and his character, he did not believe
he could have done so (p. 487).

Mr. Baker doubted much whether the slaves if free would work
for wages. But he had no doubt that if left alone, and not excited,
they would be quiet. The means of their obtaining information were
much more general now than formerly, as many can now read. He
saw twelve or fourteen executed ; and there appeared in them a mor-
bid determination to meet their fate. He thought it showed a pur-
pose of taking any opportunity which might occur of gaining their
freedom by force, Mr. Baker takes it upon him positively to deny
that the slaves were influenced in their rebellion by the fear of being
transferred to America ; and yet he says he could get no answers from
them. Then how was he to know their minds, so as to make this po-
sitive assertion ? (p. 489.)

Mr. Baker never even heard the rebellion attributed in any degree
to the parochial meetings in the fall of 1831. But how should Mr.
Baker hear of that, or of the transfer of the island to America, as
causes of the rebellion ? The slaves, who were the best witnesses,
would not open their mouths, and the whites would not, of course,
accuse themselves either in the one case or in the other. He had
heard of two murders by the blacks, and of fourteen white ladies
having been violated ; but the ladies all denied it ! He never heard
any effect attributed to Mr. Beaumont's motion on manumission in
the assembly. He was in the island in all, this last time, about three
months, and during that time he visited Manchester, Westmoreland,
Hanover, St. James, Trelawney, St. Ann, St. Mary, Spanish Town, and
Kingston. The improvements he alluded to in the condition of the
slaves, since 1816, were increased luxuries, and a much better style
of dress. Some have horses of their own. His servant had a horse
of his own (p, 490).

Mr. Baker knew Mr.Manderson, a gentleman of colour, and of great
respectability, a man of great intelligence and honour (p. 490).

He thinks the slaves are in a state of comfort, and, if their com-
forts were increased, they would be disposed to be luxurious and turbu-
lent. As to time, they have as much as they want, and, if industrious,
might be rich. As to the whip, good slaves should not have it, and
never did have it ; and the bad require it. Corporal punishment
might be put an end to without any great mischief to the slave, but

440 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

there would be mischief to the proprietors. The idle will not work
without the whip. The slaves have already as much comfort as they
want : if they had more time, the active would add luxuries to their
comforts, the others would not (p. 491, 492).

He did not perceive any strong sensation produced among the
Negroes by the burning of the chapels. The Baptist Negroes in the
towns were offended by it. He did not think they were in the country.
The African Negroes are generally indolent ; but many of the Creoles
are active. As they are improved by education, they improve in
activity. He knew many men of colour. Whites now associate with
them more than they did formerly. They are generally persons of
education and understanduig. Many of them are fully competent to
act as overseers on estates, and do so act. Some are quite as compe-
tent as any white men (p. 493, 494).

There was occasionally a talk, among persons meeting together,
about throwing off their allegiance, on account of the general dissatis-
faction with the oppressions of the mother country. He was aware
of the resolutions passed in August and September, 1831. The
Negroes must have known of them ; and it may have added to their
excitement. The people of colour, he thinks, would be disposed to
go with the whites ; but he does not believe they have any general
wish to throw off their allegiance. The free coloured population
would not be willing to subject Jamaica to the United States. They
would not consent to be separated from this country ; they are much
attached to it. He had heard that about 100 rebels were executed,
about 1000 killed, or missing, in various ways. He supposed about
100 might have been flogged. Five white persons, he believes, were
about the number put to death by the Negroes. The women, who were
in possession of the Negroes, have always denied having been violated
by them (p. 495).

A great part of the respectable Negroes can read, and he conceives
it is quite impossible to put a stop to the diffusion of knowledge
among them. Fresh insubordination can only be prevented by a dif-
ferent disposition, and a change of principles, in this country : this
Mr. Baker regards as the only hope ; without this, the colony cannot
be saved (p. 495).

The Negroes, who were executed, generally suffered in a very short
time after trial (p. 497).

He was persuaded that much of the excitement among the slaves
proceeded from irritating communications from this country. He
does not, however, know any of the Anti-Slavery party in this country
(p. 498).

XVI. Andrew Graham Dignum, Esq., resided in Jamaica from
June 1818 to May 1832, and acted there as a solicitor, and was
named in 1827 protector of slaves in two parishes. The protectors
were paid by salaries varying from £70 to £250, and were appointed
to defend slaves charged with criminal offences. He was employed for
St. Dorothy and St. John, and acted as a barrister would have done.
His duty was to see that the slaves had a fair trial. He recollects the

0)1 the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. A. G. Dignum. 441

discussions that took place on Mr. Beaumont's motion in 1831. It
produced some sensation among the slaves in St. Thomas in the Vale.
He also recollects the concession of white privileges to the people ot
colour in 1830. He does not think that any excitement was produced
by that, or by the meetings held in the different parishes in 1831.
He does not believe that any excitement whatever was caused by the
idea of being transferred to the United States : he heard of that now
for the first time. He visited the disturbed districts soon after the
insurrection. The impression made on his mind by conversing with
the slaves was that they believed the British government had made
them free, and that they were to be relieved from all labour after
Christmas ; and their finding the case not so caused the insurrection.
When he saw them afterwards they seemed ashamed and sorry for
what they had done. None of the slaves spoke to him of the mis-
sionaries ; but he was told by an officer that he could always cause
an excitement among a body of Negroes by mentioning the name of
Mr. Burchell, the missionary, who they seemed to think had brought
them into this trouble. What they said to himself was that they
did not know what had made them rebel, but the devil must have got
into their heads. He was impressed, as early as July 1831, with an
idea that they had even then an expectation of being free after Christ-
tnas (p. 500). He thinks the plot was deeply laid, and he draws this
conclusion from a conversation he had with Mr. Panton, a barrister,
whose servant had committed suicide ; but the connection of that fact
with such a plot is very lamely made out. — He thought it very impro-
bable that Mr. Miller, the Gustos, should have authorised Mr. Knibb
to examine the rebel prisoners in confinement* (p. 557).

Mr. Dignum says that the law of slave evidence is now so altered,
by the act of 1831, that an overseer may be punished for inflicting
even less than 39 lashes on a slave if he cannot show that an offence
was committed by the slave adequate to the punishment inflicted. — If
that were true, it would have been easy for Mr. Dignum to have pro-
duced examples, but he has not produced one ; and till such ex-
amples are produced, duly authenticated, we shall continue to view
the opinion of Mr. Dignum as a mere gratis dictum (p. 557, 558).

Mr. Dignum tells an absurd story in proof that the slaves did not
desire freedom. He entered an estate with an armed force, and while
surrounding the negro houses asked the inmates if they wished to be
free; and they said, No. What else could they have said under such
circumstances ?

Mr. Dignum further gave it as his opinion, that to prevent any
further insurrection it was necessary that masters should no more be
interfered with by jhe government in the way of Orders in Council,

* Surely nothing could have been more probable than that Mr. Miller, who
is represented as a sensible man, and who was commissioned to obtain informa-
tion about the causes of the insurrection, for the governor, should have employed
that very person to confer with the prisoners in whom they were most likely to
repose confidence.

3 M

442 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

or by discussions ; in short that the masters should be left to them-
selves (p. 559).

Mr. Dignum admitted that in strictness of construction he had no
right to interfere in the defence of slaves, as protector, but in cases
where they vi^ere tried for capital crimes. He had no right to interfere
for their defence in cases of plantation discipline, or cruel treatment,
but only where slaves were tried for capital crimes committed by
themselves. He had no right to interfere in any case arising under
the 33rd section of the Act of 1831, which authorises overseers to
inflict thirty-nine lashes. He had only seen one workhouse, and
never saw a Negro punished there. He said magistrates appeared to
him to be authorised to cite an overseer before them to answer for
inflicting even less than thirty-nine lashes ; and if the offence were of a
very trifling nature, the magistrate might say to the overseer, " You
may give thirty-nine lashes for aggravated offences, but you have
over-stepped the law in this instance," and inflict a fine upon him in
consequence. He had known such case^, but he could only cite one,
being the first overseer convicted on slave evidence. The man's name
he thinks was Ellis, and the trial occurred in November, 1831. He
was overseer of Nightingale Grove (an estate of Lord Harewood's),
Mr. Dignum, however, was not present, and does not tell us whether
the offence was his exceeding thirty-nine lashes, or whether the
punishment might not have been cruel as well as wanton. The case
ought to be called for with the evidence (p. 560).

Mr. D. had seen slaves at work, and had seen the driver give them
one or two cuts over the shoulder to make them work. The cat was
introduced in place of the cart-whip on some estates, but the slaves-
were dissatisfied with it ; they preferred the cart- whip. The driver's
whip has a stout handle, about two feet long ; the lash he thinks is
four or five yards long ; the upper part is thick, but does not touch the
Negro : it is the lash at the end which strikes the Negro* (p. 501, 502).

XVII. Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Rowley, K. C. B., knows much
of the West India Islands, and commanded on the Jamaica station
from 1820 to 1823. He frequently visited the estates in various parts
of the islands, and he did not find that any thing was at all con-
cealed from him, any more than by a farmer in this country no pay-
ing a visit to his farm. In one case he had gone upon an estate and
staid there all night, without being known as the admiral on the sta-
tion, and he was much pleased with all he saw. He had gone also into
the negro huts and found every thing comfortable there. He had no
slaves himself, but he hired some. He offered his freedom to one
man, but he declined it. He Avas a mulatto, who acted as his valet.

* The reason of this is plain. The lash is the part which cuts. The thick
part is chiefly of use to give its momentum to the cutting part. The whip alto-
gether, including the length of the driver's arm which wields it, with the handle,
and the thick heavy part, forms a lever of great power, which enables the small,
hard, flexile lash at the extremity, to make its incisions, drawing blood from
the buttocks, at every stroke, in cases where they have not been made callous by
previous inflictiorLS.

Oil the Extiiittion of Slavery. — Evidence of Sir Charles Rowley. 443

Two negresses belonging to his brotlier had been freed some years
before; and when he went out, in 1820, he sent for them to assist in the
house till he could get servants, and they said they regretted having
been made free, because they could not get work constantly. If asked
whether the slave was happier than the labourer in this country, he
had no hesitation in saying that, if he had been born to labour, he
would sooner have been a black in Jamaica, than a white man in this
country or any other. He stated this as the result of his own obser-
vations. There may be harsh treatment sometimes ; but taking all
chances he thought they were a much happier race than the poorer
class in this country. He saw little of demoralization there any more
than here, yet he would not go to a tropical climate for virtue ;
people are some wicked and some virtuous there as elsewhere. He
does not think that, if emancipated, the slave would work for wages
on sugar estates : no man of whatever colour would work hard in a
tropical climate if he could live without it. A man who can get food
enough at an easy rate will not be anxious for much more, if he
remains in darkness; but if his mind is enlightened he will exert him-
self more. In general he thought the overseers attentive, the hos-
pitals good, and the little plantations of the slaves well kept. They
appeared to be a very happy race of men. He had seen runaway
Negroes punished and worked in chains, but no cruelty inflicted. He
never saw any thing to impress his mind that the treatment of the
Negroes was cruel. He had thought otherwise formerly, but after
having seen them he altered his view, and now he doubted whether
they would be happier if emancipation were granted to them. He
once saw a Negro man flogging another Negro severely, and he
stopped and desired the man to be released, saying he would complain
to the agent Mr. Simpson or Mr. Shand, and the overseer Avas dis-
missed. Being asked if he thought the cart-whip a cruel instrument
of torture, he said that if it were laid on his back he should say it
was uncommon torture ; yet many seamen suffer more from the
cat-o'-nine-tails. Ke admitted it was very bad that the whip should
be inflicted at the pleasure of an individual, and thought it ought not
to be allowed. Certainly when he was in Jamaica an overseer might
inflict to the extent of thirty-nine lashes, without being answerable
for it by law. When he compared the Negro with the English peasant
he thought of apprenticeships in this country which were attended with
as much harshness and cruelty as slavery. The slave might not have
the same facility of redress by law as the apprentice ; but, in the case
of severity he had mentioned, the overseer, on his representation, was
dismissed by the attorney. Had it been his lot to be born to labour,
he should prefer the certainty of the black labourer for food, clothing,
lodging, care, &c., to the uncertainty of the labourer procuring work,
severity of climate, and other evils. He knew an apprentice might
have his indentures cancelled if he were ill treated, but he did not
know that a Negro might be emancipated if he were ill used (pp. 501
—505).

Being asked whether he went on estates to obtain information re-
specting the Negroes, he answers, " decidedly not," but to gain in-

444 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

formation as to working sugar, and general management, as he would
visit a farm here. He thinks marriage is more protected in Jamaica
than in England ! Being asked whether a wife or daughter may not be
flogged by the overseer before her husband's or father's eyes, and
whether he would prefer being a labourer on these terms rather in Ja-
maica than in England ; he said he had not thought, in making his
answer, of wife and children, or any fine feelings about them, but
about food. As to immorality and concubinage, never being guilty
of these things himself, he made it a rule never to enquire into the
doings of others. He did not think the Negro would work for wages
if wages were given him : he could get enough by working on his own
grounds, and he does not think it natural that a man, in a warm cli-
mate, should exert himself for more. With respect to the Negroes
who worked at his pen, he admitted that he offered them pay for
extra work, and, the pay being their own, they did it. (Now what is
this but working for wages?) — The Negroes are a very cheerful people,
much more happy than labourers here : that made him say he should
prefer being a labourer there. He thinks Mr. Barrett has misnamed
the driver's whip, in calling it a cart- whip ; it is more like a postillion's
whip on the continent ; but, whatever be its proper name. Sir Charles
adds, " decidedly the whip is a very cruel whip ; there is no doubt of
that." He knew many gentlemen in Jamaica, but he knew none
more competent to give evidence than Mr. Shand and Mr. Simpson
(p. 506—508).

XVni. James Beckford Wildman, Esq., has three estates in Ja-
maica, with 640 slaves upon them. He was there in 1825; and in
1826 he went out again and staid two years and a half. When he
went he found the slaves perfectly destitute of all religious instruction,
but by no means inferior in intellect to the labouring classes in this
country. They were particularly astute in driving bargains, and per-
fectly acquainted with the proper prices of commodities. Between
domestics and field Negroes there was a difference ; but it was of the
kind which exists between our servants in the house, and a ploughman
or a girl taken out of a cottage. The first step he took was to give
them religious instruction. He watched its progress, and the effect
far surpassed any thing he had expected, and was quite as satisfactory
as any thing that could be found in this country. Their morals also
have improved under religious instruction. When he first went out
there was not one slave that was married on the estate ; by a letter
lately received from a young man sent out by the Church Missionary
Society as a teacher, there are only two living in concubinage. The
change for the better from religious instruction was decided, and there
was as great eagerness for it, if not more, in many instances, than he
found in his own village in England. And not on his own estates only,
but throughout the island, the desire for both religious and general know-
ledge is too strong to be eradicated. It cannot be eradicated. They
will have it some way or other. If there were encouragement given
to it, it would spread rapidly. At present it is not only not encouraged,
but thwarted. There is a decided hostility to instructing the slaves in

on the Extinction of Slavery . — Evidence of J . B . Wildman, Esq. 445

letters. Many will give nothing but oral instruction, whichhe regards as a
farce and deception. An hour is fixed for visiting the estate to eive
oral instruction; the Negroes may have a mile or a mile and a half
to walk home ; the teacher gets them together slowly enough, and
begins catechising them, but they have scarcely entered on business
when the hour is expended, and away they go again. He regards it
not only as wholly inefficient in itself, but as carried on by most unfit
agents, by book-keepers generally, who are themselves living in the
grossest immorality, and who thus bring religion into contempt.

To employ persons living in open immorality to inculcate morality
is surely a gross absurdity. In the case of his own people the efi^ect
of instruction was very gratifying in respect to their exertions in the
labour of the estate : it was all done in a gratifying way. Looking
only at his own interest, find without any higher motive, the pro-
prietor will best promote those interests by the religious instruction of
his slaves. His first object was to do away with the driving whip as a
stimulus to labour, and he found that a most valuable change. The
whip was used, not as a stimulus to labour, but only as a corrective
of crime : and he thought all proprietors might pursue this course with
advantage, if they would only treat their slaves as Christians would
naturally treat their fellow-christians. The estates have certainly
been less productive since he went out; but for that he thus accounts: —
The system, when he arrived, was severe to a degree that was quite
revolting and horrible, and, when he went to the other extreme, the
Negroes relaxed altogether, and therefore at first little work was
done ; but, when they found that work must be done, though in a
different way, they came into his plan, and it went on perfectly well.
He effected this by talking to them, and making them understand
that, if their work was not done, they must be punished" for neglect of
duty : and this lenient mode of proceeding had a great influence upon
them. The hire of a field Negro in Jamaica is 35. 4cZ. currency, or
nearly 2s. 6d. sterling, a day. Now, what is actually given to the
slave by the master is very little, as in fact he maintains himself by
his provision grounds. Herrings are the chief allowance besides, in the
way of food. All charges included, the cost of a slave to the master
may be about £5 a head, besides the rent of house and grounds.
This calculation includes the women and children. Hired labour is
dear ; for there is none to be got but that of jobbing gangs. And cer-
tainly a most miserable life is that which is led by those who compose
such gangs. He tried the plan of giving allowances to his slaves for
extra work, but he never could get overseers to enter heartily into the
plan : the slaves were most ready to adopt it. His experience led
him to say that they were quite disposed, while slaves, to work for
money ; but he was not equally convinced that they would do it when
perfectly free ; for then the stimulus to labour, which now operates,
would be entirely lost. He talked with one of his head men on the
subject, and explained the circumstances in which the slaves would
be placed, giving up their grounds, and supporting entirely themselves
and families. He shrunk back from the change, and this led him to
think they would rather remain as they are than be free, if compelled to

446 Ueport of a Committee of the House of Commons

work. The impression on his driver's mind evidently was that he might
lose all he now^ possessed, and lose, besides, the protection and friend-
ship of his master, and gain nothing* (p. 509 — 513).

The chief difficulty which Mr. Wildman had seen in the plan of
wages was the want of a circulating medium. The only feasible plan
that had occurred to him (for he had not looked to entire emancipa-
tion) was to bring the slaves into something like the condition of our
labourers, but withholding the name of freedom, freedom implying in
their view an exemption from labour. The admission of slave evidence
has now been effected, which is most material ; for the slave's life
was in the master's hand before. He would totally put an end to
trafficking on Sunday, and give him another day in lieu of it ; for the
master has now the whole seven days ; and, if the slave does not work
on Sunday, he starves. It would thus be in his power to keep the
Sabbath. He would also provide a paid magistracy, it being abso-
lutely essential that the magistrates should be wholly unconnected
with the island. In that case the slave would get redress, which he
cannot get now. The same should be the case with all judges, as
the system now pursued of appointing planters to be judges is a mere
farce. He would take away all powei* of corporal punishment from
the master, and place it with the magistrate ; and he would protect the
slave from being separated from relations, or dispossessed of property,
and make them in all respects like the peasantry of this country, ex-
cept as to the name of freedom, being unwilling to break the link which
now connects the master and slave with each other. Mr. "Wildman's
impression is that the only thing the slave sees valuable in freedom is
exemption from labour ; and he will be able to maintain himself on a
piece of ground so easily that he will not be stimulated to labour be-
yond a bare subsistence, — a course to which he would be encouraged
by the example of the low whites, and the free black and coloured
classes alsof (p. 514, 515).

* The case could hardly have been stated quite fairly to this slave, if such was his
impression. He was not led to contemplate the possibility of retaining his house
and land, paying a reasonable rent for them, and having wages besides — and all
this, as might be the case, without losing his master's friendship, as his landlord,
though no longer his master.

f We must here make a few remarks on these views of Mr. Wildman. In
much of what he says we entirely acquiesce ; but surely he sees difficulties where
none really exist, if he deems that arising from the deficiency of a circulating me-
dium to be insuperable. — But is Mr. Wildman quite correct in the view he has
taken of the law as to slave evidence? He has not, we apprehend, read that law:
he would otherwise have passed a very different judgment upon it. He is perhaps
not aware that the present law on the subject, that of 1831, clauses 130, 131,
and 132, are almost verbatim the same with the corresponding clauses of the Act
of 1826, Avhich was disallowed by Mr. Huskisson. Mr. Huskisson's observa-
tions upon it are as follows : — " This law appears to contemplate the admission
of the evidence of slaves in those cases of crime oyily in which they are usually
either the actors or the sufferers, excluding the evidence in other cases ; a distinction
which does not seem to rest on any solid foundation." " The rule which requires
that two slaves at the least shall consistently depose to the same fact on being
examined apart, before any free person can be convicted on slave testimony, will

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. B. Wildman, Esq 447

Mr. Wildman was then questioned about Mr, Taylor's management
and its effects on his property. He complained of it, saying that Mr
Taylor was so carried away by his feelings and his scruples that great

greatly diminish the value of the general rule. In the case of rape, for example,
such restriction might secure impunity to offenders of the worst description. The
rejection of the testimony of skives twelve months after the commission of the
crime would be fatal to the ends of justice in many cases ; nor is it easy to see
what solid advantage could result from it in any case. If the owner of a slave
is convicted of any crime on the testimony of that slave, the court has no power
to declare that slave free, although it may exercise the power wlien it proceeds on
other evidence. Highly important as it is to deprive a slave of any motive for
giving false evidence against his owner, that object might be secured without in-
curring the inconvenience of leaving the slave in the power of an owner convicted
of the extreme abuse of his authority." In these remarks of Mr. Huskisson,
Lord Goderich entirely concurs. But neither of them pointedly notices the de-
fect that the evidence of slaves is wholly excluded in all civil cases, and in all
matters of wrong affecting their persons and property, and not involving certain
crimes that are specifically mentioned in it. The whole range, therefore, of plan-
tation disciphne, not involving those specified crimes, is wholly excluded from
the operation of this boasted law of slave evidence.

As it is of the very utmost importance that this subject should be fully under-
stood, both as it respects the unintentional misapprehensions of such a man as
Mr. Wildman, and the intentional sophistications of such men as Mr. Dignum
and Mr. Burge, we will give the law as it actually stands in the statute-book at
this moment.

" CXXX. And be it further enacted. That from and after the commencement
of this act, upon any complaint made before a justice of the peace of any murder,
felony, burglary, robbery, rebellion, or rebellious conspiracy, treason, or traitor-
ous conspiracy, rape, mutilation, branding, disinembering, or cruelly beating, or
confining ivithout sufficient support, a slave or slaves ; or in any cases of seditious
meetings, or of harbouring or concealing runaivay slaves, or giving false tickets
or, letters to sucti runaway slaves, to enable ttiem to elude detection; or on any
inquisition before a coroner ; the evidence of any slave or^ slaves, respecting such
complaint and inquisition, shall be received and taken by such justice of thepeace
or coroner; and on any prosecution in any of the courts of this island, for any
of the crimes before mentioned, the evidence of a slave or slaves shall also be ad-
mitted and received : provided always, that, before such evidence shall be re-
ceived, the justice of the peace, coroner, or court, shall be satisfied, on due ex-
amination had, that such slave comprehends the nature and obligation of an
oath. And provided also, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the court
from receiving objections as to the competency of such witness, or from receiving
evidence as to the credibility of such witness, in like manner as they would re-
ceive the same as to free persons. And provided also, that no free person shall
be convicted of any of the crimes aforesaid, vvfhenever the evidence of any slave
shall be admitted, unless two slaves at least clearly and consistently deposed to
the same fact or circumstance, such slaves being examined apart and out of the
hearing of each other, or unless the evidence of one slave shall be corroborated
by some free person deposing clearly and distinctly to the same fact or circum-
stance, such free person and slave to be examined separately and apart from
each other. And provided also, that no free person shall be convicted on the
testimony of any slave or slaves of any crime or offence, as aforesaid, unless the
complaint shall have been made within twelve months after the commission
thereof, and unless the crime or offence shall have been committed subsequent
to the commencement of this act. And provided also, that no free person,
accused of any crimes herein before mentioned, shall be committed for trial, or re-

448 Report of a Coynmittee of the House of Commons

loss ensued, and he should have lost all had Mr. Taylor remained ; as,
conceiving that slavery was a crime, he neglected to maintain due
discipline : indeed, there was a total relaxation of discipline. The
year before Mr. Taylor came into the management he had realised
£2000 ; the year IVIr. Taylor left he was deficient £1400. He remon-
strated with him on the change ; and his answers turned almost exclu-
sively on the right or wrong of slavery (p. 515 and 517).

Mr. Wildman's own plan was, that, when a slave behaved decidedly
ill, he punished him. He flogged only three, however, during the
whole time he was there. One was a young man belonging to Salt
Savannah, who absconded once for three days, and afterwards for a
week. On his return Mr. Wildman talked with him, and told him
if he continued thus to run away he would be of no use to him ; and,
rather than allow him to set so bad an example to the other slaves, he
should part with him. The slave urged him impudently to do so. Mr. W.
then had him punished with sixteen or seventeen stripes, when he begged
very hard, and promised not to repeat the offence. The driver told
Mr. Wildman that the young man was particularly quiet and well-
disposed, and that he had doubtless been set on by the other slaves to
try the experiment how far they might venture to go, in behaving ill,
with impunity. Though the use of the whip, therefore, was practi-
cally discontinued, it was not extinguished, when crime was com-

quired to enter into any recognizance to appear and take his or her trial upon
the evidence of any slave, unless such evidence shall be corroborated by some
other slave or free person clearly and consistently deposing to the same fact,
being examined apart as aforesaid."

The next clause, 131, refers merely to technical matters of form, and the al-
lowances to be made to slave witnesses, and the compensation to be made to
their owners ; and it is therefore omitted.

" CXXXII. And, in order to remove as much as possible any temptation to
commit perjury by those slaves who shall be required to give evidence, be it
enacted, that the court shall not be at liberty to exercise the power given by this
act for declaring any slave free and discharged from all manner of servitude,
where the owner of such slave has been convicted of particular offences, if any
slave shall have been sworn upon the trial as a witness on the part of the pro-
secution."

The reader will here observe that this last provision debars the liberation of
a suffering slave from his cruel master, not only when he him.self is a witness,
but when any slave, and consequently when 20 or 100 slaves testify to the same
fact. We would further observe that now, for the first time, is the branding of
a slave made penal by the law of Jamaica.

Now we can have no doubt that Mr. Wildman will agree with us that the ad-
mission of slave evidence is most inadequately and elusively effected by this law.

We must wholly differ also from Mr. Wildman in thinking that all the slave
sees in freedom is an exemption from labour. He cannot have given a correct
account of the intelligence of the slaves, if this be true; for the slave himself,
if he opens his eyes and looks around him, must see that no human being, whe-
ther slave or free, is exempted from labour. Let Mr. Wildman only read the
evidence of Admiral Fleming on the Caraccas, Cuba, and Hayti, given above,
p. 378 — 390, and he must see that, if he continues to maintain his present views
of this subject, it can only be from his labouring under the influence of some
■unsuspected prejudice.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. B. Wildman, Esq. 449

mitted. The instances in which it was used (and he was thankful they
were so few) was in cases in which the man would have been sent to
;gaol in this country by a magistrate. Mr. Wildman said that had
he stuck to the law, which is not usually done either on one side or the
other, he might have given, in each of these cases, 39 lashes. He
had it in his power by law to give to the extent of 39 lashes, if any
thing displeased him, even a look : that was decidedly the law. The
master was the sole judge when a man should be punished, and to
what extent, provided it was not beyond 39 lashes. To that nominal
number he was restricted by law, but persons went constantly far be-
yond the law. If a slave did anything to offend his owner or overseer,
even by a look, he might be punished with 39 lashes, and the owner
was answerable to no one for doing so. The whip was abolished on
Mr. W's. estates as a stimulus to labour, but retained as a punishment
for offences, on the principle that if a farmer in his parish in England
had complained to him of his servant neglecting his labours, he would
have sent him to the tread-mill for a certain time (p. 516, 517).

Mr. Wildman does not think that, if the slaves were free, any
sugar at all would be cultivated, or that any labour could be hired
for that purpose. He does not believe that degradation attaches to
sugar cultivation on account of its being the work of slaves. The
taunt is not that a man has, but that he has not a master on whom to
depend.* A free brown man, married to one of his own slaves, lives
on Papine, and the slaves speak of him quite sneeringly., — There is
the g'reatest possible distinction between domestic slavery and field
labour. If a domestic slave is turned into the field, he views it as a
great degradation ; but the field labourer does not so view it. Be-
fore he came away he turned all his domestic slaves into the field, on
pui-pose to do away the impression of any disgrace in field labour. —
Cavaliers was inhabited by free people, who rented small portions of
land, but who led very dissolute lives, cultivating a little coffee, to
enable them to tempt the slaves on the coffee estates around them to
steal it, and sell it to them ; and, when the time came for paying
their rent, they sold their crops, and were off, and did not return
again. Their houses were inferior to those of his own slaves on Pa-
pine, and even to the houses of industrious slaves generally on other
estates, though, on estates, some huts were worse than theirs. Their
ordinary clothing was superior to that of the slaves ; but, when the
slaves put on their best, they were better clothed than those people.
Their furniture was better than that of some of the slaves, but inferior
to that of the head people on estates. The people of colour, however,
in general are better clothed than the best clothed of the slaves ; but
the people in Cavaliers were certainly not so well off as respectable
slaves on estates. The persons who resorted thither were probably
servants, to whom gentlemen had given freedom on their quitting the
island ; and, being close to Kingston, and the land rich which they

* Surely Mr. Wildman 's phildsophy is at fault here. He is misled by the cir-
cumstances of his own particular case, and the affection his pwn slaves bear to
him.

450 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

had an opportunity of hiring, it became a favourite resort of suek
persons. The free people on Pedro plains are much better off than
the Cavaliers people : they have cattle. Those at Cavaliers keep much
out of sight. They are less frank and bold in their manners than the
slaves, which he attributes to their predatory habits. They had women
and families with them, but he did not think they were married. They
had no religious worship or instruction whatever. He endeavoured
to establish, before he came away, both divine service and a school
among them ; the reports he has since received are favourable : and he
has a confidence that they and their children will avail themselves
of instruction, and will improve by it ; but he was fearful of freedom
without the restraint of religious feeling. — The people at Cavaliers
mostly built their own huts ; and the land was rented to them at
about £2 an acre (p. 518, 519).

Mr. Wildman was decidedly of opinion that the slaves, on the ex-
isting system, could not employ Sunday in religious instruction.
" They must employ it in their maintenance, or starve" (p. 519).

Mr. Wildman had stated that four slaves, whom he had tempted to
work for hire as an experiment, had overworked themselves, and he
was asked to reconcile that fact with his opinion that they would not
work for hire when free: he replied, "The slaves knew they were com-
pellable to work, therefore any reward given them was a boon for
which they exerted themselves." He had tried this experiment,
to see whether they would work for the inducement of gain : no threat
or compulsion was used, and at the end of the day they were
found to have overworked themselves. This was not the only experi-
ment he tried. In other cases he gave money to have work done,
and always with success. Mr. Wildman, notwithstanding this uni-
versal success of his experiments, does not think it a proof that the
slave if free will so work. As a slave, a man must labour for a
certain time, and any reward he can get is a bonus ; but if free he
may choose to work at all or not, as it pleases him. He had no doubt
that the fear of want, if he could be made to feel it, would induce
him to work ; but Mr. Wildman apprehends that if made free, as he
could support himself with a little labour, he would do no more than was
needful to that end. He thinks, therefore, if a state of villainage
could be substituted for slavery, instead of perfect freedom, he has
no doubt it might be made to answer. His notion is simply this :
If the planter could command his Negroes as the farmer can his la-
bourers through the magistrate in England, the thing could be done.
The cottager here may be compelled to work to support his family,
and if he does not he is punishable. Now if the slave was in the
same state, and his wants compelled him to work every day in the
week as the cottager does, then the same system might be adopted
there as here.

In crop time the practice is for the slave to be in the field and
begin work before sunrise and to continue at work till twelve ; and to
return to it again at two, and continue till dark. The practice on one
of his estates, when he first went out, was to keep what is called the
long spell : that is to say, one spell at the mill and boiling house

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. B. Wildman, Esq. 451

continued to work there from noon on Monday, for example, till noon
on Tuesday, when it was relieved by the other spell from the field
that had been at work from day dawn in the morning, and then re-
mained at the mill and boiling house till Wednesday at noon, and so
alternately throughout the week ; so that there were thirty-six hours of
continuous labour, and from ten to twelve hours of continuous rest, in
each forty-eight hours. But on his other estates, where the short
spell was kept, there were eighteen hours of continuous labour and five
or six hours of rest, in each twenty-four hours. The long spell ap-
peared to Mr. Wildman to be a very dreadful system, and when he
discovered it on going out, he resolved to put an end to it ; but he
found, to his surprise, that his attorney was actually ignorant of the
existence of any such practice till he pointed it out and convinced him
of it. That system was put an end to, and in place of it the mill was
stopped every night at eight o'clock ; and when the sugar was boiled
off, which took an hour and a half or two hours, the whole of the
people went home ; and the mill began again at four in the morning,
so that they might all have if they chose seven or eight hours' rest in
the twenty-four. He did not consider this change as any loss to him-
self; for it was plainly utterly impossible for human life to stand such
long interruptions of rest, whether at hard work or not. It was wholly
incompatible with the health of the slave. He therefore put a stop
to it ; but he was thwarted on all sides in his endeavours to do so, not
only by the overseers, but by the slaves themselves ; for where the
long spell had been established they preferred it to the short spell,
which calls them up at midnight to divide the night work between
them. They pleaded that, when called up at midnight to go to the
mill, they were so sleepy that they were often late and so got flogged.
But when Mr. Wildman explained his plan, which was to secure to
them a continuous sleep of seven or eight hours in the twenty-four,
they were glad of the change (p. 523 — 525).

Mr. Wildman mentioned that one of the disadvantages attending
this protracted labour was the manifest injury to the health of the
persons, among others, who fed the mill with canes : they got wet
from the spurting out of the cane juice over them, and then at the
end of their protracted labours, throwing themselves down to sleep
without due precaution, they caught severe colds, the nights in the
early part of crop time being excessively cold. He had seen this with
his own eyes, and had even fed the mill himself to satisfy himself of
the reality of the evil. Though well clothed he was wet, and should
have been ill had he not changed his dress. He considers this as one
great cause of the loss of Negroes on sugar estates ; and it is one of
which it is quite impossible that any person who had to manage a
boiling house could be ignorant. In this case what was gained in
produce was lost in the life and health of the slaves.

He found this remission of night labour to be beneficial in another
way. A very fine Avoman came to him to complain of her loss of
children. She never could, as she expressed it, hold a child in her
arms. When he f[uitted Jamaica the last time, this woman had got
three children in four years. There were other similar cases. Indeed

452 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

the slaves became far more prolific under the new system. BefoTe
he went out first the returns exhibited only three births in a year
out of 280 slaves on Papine. The years that succeeded his going out
and acting on this plan exhibit from nine to eleven births annually.
In general the returns in Jamaica exhibit only the children who attain
the age of twelve months, but the number who die before that age is
very considerable, in spite of the utmost care. As for the losses by
abortion, they are never reckoned at all. The necessity of night
work, in order to working off the crop in time to take advantage of the
seasons for putting in the new plant, is such that night work is again
resumed on the plan of double spells, or of dividing the night; but
he has directed that, to obviate the evil of the system, the spell which
has to take the duty from 6 to 12 shall not repair to the field in the
afternoon; but have the period from shell -blow, that is from twelve
to six, for sleep, or any thing else they may choose (p. 524, 525).

In forming a police for preserving due order and enforcing industryy
it ought to be kept in view that the blacks are much less apt to be
jealous of authority exercised over them by persons of their own colour
than by browns (p. 526).

Negroes will, like all other people, sometimes make frivolous or
exaggerated complaints ; but this is by no means always the case.
He has known his own people severely punished when he has himself
been on the estate, and has not heard of it for months, and then
casually (p. 526).

Mr.Wildman had spoken of book-keepers being employed on estates^
as catechists ; he is asked whether there are not catechists and clergy-
men sent out by the Conversion Society, and also island curates j
- to which he replies that some of the island curates exert themselves
very properly in instructing the slaves ; but others do not at all.
They do not give lettered instruction, but that is only one objection
to it : it is inefficient in other ways; for, while the system pursued is oral
only, the time allotted is so wholly inadequate that no benefit can be
derived from it. He spoke generally, and of what fell within his own
observation. He does not say there are no exceptions ; there are
clergymen in the island whose exertions are beyond all praise. The
time allotted for instruction by catechists is almost universally one
hour a week. He has known estates visited on this system, and he
pronounces it to be totally inadequate ; he saw no beneficial effects,
no progress at all to justify what has been said of it. He knew of
two estates attended by the zealous clergymen to whom he referred ,
which were not in the rebellion. On many estates the Negroes
carried on the cultivation in the absence of the overseers (p. 527).

Mr. Wildman was then asked about a slave of his, named Eleanor
James, who had been most barbarously punished by the proprietor of a
neighbouring estate, but for which no redress whatever was obtained,
nor any penalty incurred by any one. He laid the case before the Colonial
Office. (See the account given of this transaction in our vol. IV. No.
83, p. 317.) Mr. Wildman is quite satisfied a man may live a month
on an estate and be as ignorant of what goes on there as if he were
in England. He could only enquire of overseers and book-keepers.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. B.Wildman,Esq. 453

If he were to enquire of the slaves, it would be resented. He ha&
himself gone upon an estate at the wish of the proprietor, and with
the authority of the attorney, and been round it with the overseer,
and yet failed in seeing the people. Without the employment of any
particular caution, it is almost impossible for strangers to find out
what is doing on estates. An attorney or overseer may most unques-
tionably exercise severe and tyrannical power without its being known
to the public, even as far as to the sacrifice of Negro life. He had
reason to know instances of this, slave evidence not being then admis-
sible. (Mr. Wildman erroneously conceives, as we have shown, that
there is any material change in the law of slave evidence as affecting
plantation discipline.) From his own experience, he knows it to be per-
fectly absurd to stippose that a commander-in-chief visiting an estate^
unless he took very particular pains indeed (and eveii then it would
be difl[icult), could obtain any knowledge of the condition of the slaves
upon it (p. 528).

Mr. Wildman's own slaves were perfectly quiet during the insur-
rection (ibid.).

He began his system of instruction immediately on returning to the
island, after his first visit ; but he was assailed in the newspapers as
an enemy to the colony: he was told that if he meant to set fire to his
own estate, he had no right to burn down those of others. The most
infamous, ribaldrous, libels were published against him and his
family : a more filthy libel was never published against an unoffending
lady than one of them (ibid.).

He has had the most gratifying proofs of the gratitude of his slaves
in their exertions by labour to bring up his estates from the low state
to which they had fallen. The slaves on Salt Savannah voluntarily
offered to give up their own time to repair the waste on that estate.
When Mr. Farquharson, his present attorney and friend, took posses-
sion, the Negroes came to him in a body, and said they were ashamed
and hurt he should see its condition ; and at night they came to him
again in a body, to say that they would give up their whole time till
the estate was put in order again ; and since that time the work has
been carried on to Mr. Farquharson's entire satisfaction (p. 528).

Mr. Wildman mentioned one instance of the extraordinary volun-
tary diligence of his slaves. They had become subjects of taunt in
the neighbourhood — " There goes one of Massa Wildman's Niggers" —
and some of them were made wretched by these taunts about their
freedoin and laziness. On one occasion, however, they had to exe-
cute some hard work in digging a trench between his estate and
Pusey Hall, and it was allotted in equal portions to the same number
of slaves of the two gangs. The overseer said to them, " You are
called worthless ; you will not work, your master having done away
with the whip. The Pusey Hall people work with the whip. Let them
see what you can do." They set to work in such good earnest that,
before the day was out, the Pusey Hall people complained that the
Salt Savannah people would kill them if they went on so. — The whip
in the field is now disused on Mr. Wildman's estates. Though not
used, it was still carried in the field while he was there. The driveiv

454 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

a very old Negro, begged not to be deprived of it, but promised
that it should not be used ; for he deemed its appearance necessary
to keep up his authority. Mr. Taylor put it dowrn entirely ; and Mr.
Farquharson, who has as great a horror of the whip as Mr. Wildman,
has not resumed it. It is still used for crimes, but not for deficiency
of labour ; but he cannot tell what the understanding of the Negroes
is upon that point. If a slave quitted the field, or did not perform
his fair task, he was punished, but not by the whip ; by some privation,
or by confinement ; but it was fully understood that the whip was re-
tained, though in practice only used for crimes or offences. He
thought, from all his experience, and the circumstances he had stated,^
that the Negroes were operated upon by the same feelings of gratitude
and affection as other human beings. He still thinks, however, that,
if emancipated, they would be unwilling to work ; and this he at-
tributes to the facility with which they could support themselves if
free, to their natural indolence, and to the climate. He had himself
worked in his garden with a stout Negro, who told him that, if he
made. his slaves to work as he had done, he would kill them all in
three months : but it would have been utterly impossible for him to
have gone on working in that way for any length of time. He has
known Negroes to carry loads to market which they could not be in-
duced, even by force, to carry for their master ; but it was voluntarily
done for their own benefit : and, in point of fact, it is true that the
Negroes do exert themselves, with great energy, for the purpose of
obtaining, not only food, but comforts and luxuries.

Mr. Wildman admitted that if the slaves, who had now only 26
days in the year during which to provide for themselves and their
families, occupied themselves diligently in their own grounds, they
would do so, supposing the number to be increased to 35, or any larger
number ; nor did he believe that there was any limit to which it
might not be extended with advantage, and even with increased energy
on their parts, with a view to the acquisition of wealth ; and especially
if their moral habits were improved by religious instruction. Of this he
was so well persuaded that he should not feel the least disinclination, in
the course of a few years, that government should proclaim freedom
to all slaves. He saw no reason to suppose that there would be any
difference in their conduct and that of manufacturers and artisans at
home, except as religion, and as the means of providing for every es-
sential gratification with less labour made a difference. But he thought
that, if emancipation took place in their present uninformed state,
it would be the destruction of the slaves and of the island
too. Four or five years might be sufficient for preparation, especially
if a good example were set them, and they were not corrupted, as
now, by the licentious lives of their superiors. The overseers now
are generally not married men. At present married men are refused
employment, simply because they are married. Married men meet
with general discouragement from the planters. What the objection
really is to employing them he cannot precisely say, but it is almost
insuperable. The present profligacy of the whites is certainly very pre-
judicial to the. interests of proprietors ; and why it is not put down.

on t/ieJExtinction of Slavery. — Emdence of J. B. Wildman, Esq. ASS

it is difficult to say. In fact the system of Jamaica, from beginning
to end, is so very corrupt that the moral instruction of the Negro is
hindered by it. If the Negro is taught morality, he can point to his
master and say, " You tell me to do so and so ; but what do you
do yourself?" He was of opinion, however, that the interests of the
owner and of the attorney are often diametrically opposed to each
other, and this is one of the sources of destruction to West Indian
property. The cause of the preference given to unmarried men it is
difficult to assign : it certainly is not the expense. At the same time it
is obvious that a dissolute attorney would not feel at ease where the
overseers or book-keepers were living morally as married men. Many
of the attorneys are said to keep women on every estate they go to ;
but he does not say this of his own knowledge. There are many cases
in which, independently of this, the interests of attorneys and own-
ers are directly at variance. Attorneys are often paid according to
the returns they make ; and they may not care one penny if it be made
by the sacrifice of human life. He does not believe that a better sys-
tem prevailed, even when there were proprietors, married men, resid-
ing in the island. In fact, all the young men who go out to Jamaica^
go out there under the idea of again returning to England : and they
also know that they may at any time be turned out of their situations
at a moment's warning ; and that, while out of employment, they would
be obliged to depend on the hospitality of neighbouring overseers ;
and that, if deprived of that resource, they might be ruined (p. 530 —
532).

Mr. Wildman's plan of instruction for his slaves was as follows : —
He established an infant school, and kept the little children there all
day. The gang or class above them in age he took for two hours in the
morning, and two hours in the afternoon. The second gang he took
for one hour a day out of his (Mr. Wildman's) time, and endeavoured
to induce them to stay one hour of their own time ; for, as they did
not work for themselves then, it would be comparative rest being
in school. Then the adults were under no regular plan of in-
struction, except on Sunday : but many of them would come during
their mid-day interval, and also at night, voluntarily, for instruction.
And this abstraction of time he did not regard as any loss to the
owner ; and he was firmly convinced that, on that plan, at the end of
seven years, the master would be no poorer (p. 532, 533).

One emancipated slave of his own worked for hire on his estate ;
but it was the only instance he knew. He was acquainted with the
general condition of the free blacks. He thought them increasing in
wealth and prosperity, through the medium of their own industry.
He had the same view of the condition of the free people of colour,
except that they acquired more from gifts and bequests than the
blacks ; for it is common for white men who have lived with women
in this way, when they quit the island, to give them a house and
some property ; and a great proportion of their property may have
come to them from that source (p. 533).

Mr. Wildman could not venture to say what time it might take,
under a system of active instruction, to prepare the slaves for eman-.

456 Report of a. Committee of the House of Commons

cipation. His own, he thought, were not yet fit, though he had
been at work since 1826. The same pains had not been taken on
other estates ; indeed, few admitted education at all. When he said
that five years might suffice to prepare the slaves for emancipation,
he assumed that a plan universally adopted would be carried on Avith
more care than an individual, thwarted at every turn, could take.
Under existing circumstances, he was decidedly of opinion that no
provision for instruction could be made effectual in any short time.
He alluded to the objection felt to instruction on the part of the
planters ; and, even if that were overcome, he does not think that the
population would be so changed in five years as to make emancipation
safe. He considers that, before being exposed to the chances of such a
transition, they should have a decided knowledge of religious principles
and practice, and a habit of acting accordingly. He hoped by such
means to counteract the temptations to indolence in a country where
the necessaries and superfluities of life are so easily acquired, and
the climate inclines to indolence. Mr. Wildman conceives also that
a slave has no adequate idea what freedom is ; but the illustration
he adduces to support the position is certainly as remote from any
thing like a logical deduction as can well be imagined. He says,
"When I came from Jamaica, a little girl, whom my sister brought
home from the island, was astonished to see a white woman selling
fish. They cannot fancy a white woman working" (p. 534).

If the resolutions of Parliament in 1823 had been followed up, as
they ought to have been, by adequate means of instruction, Mr. Wild-
man would not have the slightest objection to the slaves being now
declared free. Unfortunately no great increase of exertion in supply-
ing the means of instruction in Jamaica has taken place since that
time. The Church Missionary Society and the Sectarians alone have
been efficiently active during the interval. By the established church,
through the Bishop, little has been done. TheBishop has even materially
impeded the progress of instruction. He says this, though he him-
self is a zealous member of the establishment, and much opposed in
some respects to Dissenters. Ins^uction under the church of England
has certainly not advanced in any degree adequate to the expense.
The bishop has unhappily thought it dangerous to interfere with the
prevailing vices. He has not assailed the great immoralities he witnessed,
and has deemed it necessary to temporize, and leave them untouched.
In saying this he alluded to the whole population, white and 'black.
When he has known instances of gross immorality, he has not set his
face against them as a Christian Bishop ought to have done. Of all
the teachers of religion in Jamaica the Sectarians are decidedly the
most efficient. They give themselves up devotedly to their work,
and in many instances have been eminently successful. Comparing
the Sectarians with the established clergy, he knew of no case of
immorality among the Sectarians. Of the clergy he could not say the
same ; of that he spoke without doubt. The Church Missionary
Society's missionaries are far superior; they also employ respectable
moral men of colour when they can get them. Their exertions emanate
solely from the members of the Church of England. They do not

mn the Extinction of Slavery . — Eviddnce of J. B. Wildman, Esq. 457

employ Dissenters. Their exertions have been very considerable and
very successful (p, 535).

Mr. Wildman did not mean to apply what he had said of immorality
to the clergy generally. But he spoke of individuals both now and
heretofore, and certainly the number of immoral men among them was
greater than in this country. The clergy were by no means under the
necessity of confining their pastoral care to the whites. Mr. Trew, of
St. Thomas in the East, was most active, and the change he produced
in the population of his parish was almost incredible. His system was
to direct his morning service chiefly to the whites, and, after the ser-
vice, he kept a school for the blacks, and for any who liked to come.
The afternoon service was addressed almost exclusively to the blacks
and browns; and, after that service, there was again a school. Had
there been a Mr. Trew in every parish the effect would have been very
great. Once, when staying at Mr. Trew's house, five or six head men
from different estates came, and, a report being current of an insurrec-
tion which was likely to involve St. Thomas in the East, he asked their
opinion : they, one and all, said, " Fear nothing of the kind in this
parish; we will riot only not suffer our own people to commit any excess,
but we will not suffer any slave from other parts to interfere with us."
This Mr. Wildman heard with his own ears. And yet Mr. Trew
drew more malice and envy upon him than any other man in the
island. He quitted Jamaica on account of his health. Had there
been a Mr. Trew in every parish he should not have had the slightest
fear of emancipation as to its safety ; though he might still doubt the
slaves continuing to labour (p. 536).

Mr. Trew, in his efforts to spread instruction, obtained the aid of
many whites in his own parish ; but nevertheless the ill will he drew
on himself was very general, and that was increased after the Bishop
came out : for he used to hold up Mr. Trew as an example to his
clergy, which made him a marked man, at the same time that he
himself thv,rarted Mr. Trew in an extraordinary way. He praised
him and his exertions in his charges ; but at the same time he was
nwch opposed to Mr. Trew. Mr. Trew was assailed by slander, and
met with opposition even in his own parish. He was even effectually
thwarted on estates to which proprietors and attorneys authorized
him to attend ; for a clergyman in Jamaica cannot go upon an estate
-in his own parish without permission, and the Bishop even restricted
his clergy from doing so without leave ; so that it would have been
impossible for Mr. Trew, or any clergyman, to instruct the slaves of
his own parish : even if the slaves were willing to give up to him their
two hours at noon, and he were to come to instruct them, the overseer
might still absolutely refuse permission.* Mr. Wildman thinks the
class of instructors sent out by the Church Missionary Society and

* The words of the Curates' Act of 1816 were express on this point : The
Rectors and Curates were required to instruct the slaves who may be desirous to
be instructed : " Provided alwuya that the consent and approbation of the
person in possession of the estate or plantation to he visited be first had and ob-
iained for that purpose.''''

3 o

458 Report of a Committee of the Hotise of Commons

the Dissenting; Missionaries much better suited to the work of instruct-
ing negroes than educated university men. The morals and doctrines
of those missionaries he believed to be sound and good, and their
conduct exemplary.

And yet he should decidedly prefer pious clergyman of the church
of England if to be had, feeling that there is inconvenience in the
want of responsibility on the part of Sectarians, and that a clergyman
must, at least, be possessed of general education and character
(p. 537, 538).

Mr. Wildman has always understood that the greater part of the
poor rate, raised in Jamaica, was expended on the whites.

Mr. Wildman being asked whether, in the conversation he had had
with his driver about freedom, as mentioned above, he told him that,
though free, he would still be at liberty to live on the estate, paying
rent, but receiving wages, replied that he had not mentioned wages.
He certainly thought that they could be made to understand that free-
dom was not an exemption from labour, but a state in which they
should have the benefit of their own labour. He admits fully (and
it is important to note this after the strong opinions expressed by Mr.
Wildman as to the present unfitness of the slaves for freedom) that the
slaves could be made to understand that continuing attached to their
residences and grounds, and paying rent for them, while they re-
ceived reasonable wages, they might thus live in ease by the exercise
of moderate industry, and enjoy the blessings and comforts of life.
He thinks certainly that the present state of things cannot continue
long, as they are now, without proceeding from bad to worse. If the
present system goes on, the Negroes, he thinks, will not remain quiet.

The punishments in use in Jamaica now are very cruel punish-
ments. " The general system is to give them a certain number of
stripes with a long whip, which inflicts either a dreadful laceration, or
a dreadfubcontusion, and then they follow up that by a very severe
floggingwith ebony switches : the ebony being a very strong wiry plant,
with small leaves, like a myrtle leaf, and under every leaf a very sharp,
tough, thorn ; and then after that they are rubbed with brine," He
never himself saw it done : he could not have borne it ; but he knew it to
be practised in every part of the island. He had seen the persons of
the slaves after they had been so punished, and has had to listen to
the complaints of his own people, who complained wofully of it. They
are struck a number of times with one of these switches, or rather
bushes, which is thrown away when worn and another taken. Slaves
are also punished in the bilboes in the most unmerciful manner. An
iron fetter goes round the feet, and is made to run on a long iron bar,
fixed on an inclined plane, to which a dozen individuals are often
fixed. They are confined here all night, lying back on the inclined
plane, which is a hard board, and let out in the morning to go to
work, this kind of punishment beingoften continued for weeks' together.
The punishments also in the workhouses are dreadful. He had never
been in any of the gaols but one, and that was extremely filthy. It
was that of St. Andrew, at Half-way Tree, near Papine. He had had
occasion to commit a Negress there, and she was reported to be in so

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J. B. Wildman,Esq. 459

bad a state that he went to inspect the gaol, and he found it in a most
filthy state, and the punishments little short of those of the inquisition :
they were actually tortured there. The mode of flogging was to put
a rope round each wrist, and a rope round each ancle, and then they
were what the sailors call " bowsed out" with a tackle and pulley.
He never saw this performed, but knew that it was done from his own
Negroes, who had been sent there. He complained to the custos and
magistrates of the parish of these proceedings. The result was, that
the block and tackle system was defended as a humane practice, as it
prevented the sufferer from turning in his agony, and getting a blow on
a tender part. When he went to examine the gaol, a Negro was called
to lie down and show how it was done. A skin was stretched on the
ground, and he lay upon the skin, and then this tackle was applied
to him ; and, though Mr. W. and several others were looking, yet when
the rope was tightened by another Negro, the man who was operated
upon gave a yell, which made Mr. Wildman quite start. The yell
was not from apprehension ; but from actual pain. He represented all
this to the custos, Mr. Mais ; but no notice whatever was taken of
it at that time, which was just before he last quitted Jamaica (p. 339
340).

Bping further questioned as to his views of the effect of emancipa-
tion upon the slaves, he said he thought the Negro, though he would
work, would not so work as to carry on the cultivation of sugar. A
want of religious instruction was another obstacle. The Conversion
Society,' he said, had by no means been actively conducted. — He
thought that, in case of emancipation, masters might be relieved from
all responsibility as to the food both of old and young. The old
people are now taken care of without the master, by the Negroes
themselves. Old and young might be left to the operation of natural
affection. The feelings of kindred, and the love of parents and
children, he thinks, are as strong in the Negro as in the white. They
even carry it beyond this, to those who came over from Africa in the
same ship, whom they call shipmates, and always address with regard.
There is no doubt they would support their sickly children and their
aged parents. Their families now support them, with the exception
of the master's allowance of clothing, &c. When old and decrepit,
and wholly incapable of labour, the master provides for them, the
relations aiding. The propriety and advantage of emancipation, he
still thought, would turn on the slaves' being instructed. He candidly
confessed that he thought all profit to him as a proprietor would cease
from that time. He admitted, however, that he might be mistaken
in his expectations on this point. He certainly conceived free labour
to be as cheap as slave labour ; but he did not think that sugar would
be cultivated by free labour, unless all the land could be ploughed —
(and why not all ploughed?) — then cane might be cultivated; but
not if the ground is to be dug, as now. The plough could not be
applied, he thinks, to two-thirds of the island ; but he does not assent
to the injury caused to the land by ploughing and exposure to the
sun. The digging of cane-holes is the most severe labour he knows,

460 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

except, perhaps, felling trees with the axe. He would sooner dig aia
ticre of hops than an acre of canes* (p. 541, 542).

XIX. The Rev. Jonathan Tyers Barrett, D. D., is Secretary to

* It is true that there is a great deal of mountain land in .Jamaica where the
plough could not conveniently be used ; but there are very extensive tracts of
level and fair lying land in that island, more than sufficient for all its present
sugar growth ; and we can have no doubt that there are in Jamaica at least a
million of acres on which the plough could be made to move as easily as in
England.

But the point to vi^hich we chiefly object in the generally able, luminous, and
truly interesting evidence of Mr. Wildman, is the strong opinion he has formed
that full and effective religious instruction should and must precede emancipa-
tion, in order to render that measure a safe one. Mr. Wildman will not sup-
pose that we undervalue the extreme, the paramount importance of religion in
all states and circumstances of life. But to affirm, as he does, that the influence
of real Christianity must precede a man's restoration to the enjoyment of his
natural, and civil, and even political rights, is a proposition which we find it
veiy difficult to understand how any man so intelligent and so observant as Mr.
Wildman should have permitted himself for one moment to entertain. Would
he then propose that men's natural and civil rights should be restrained in pro-
portion to their want of Christian knowledge and Christian practice ? One
effect of this would be that the masters in Jamaica would soon have to change
places with at least an equal number of their slaves. Besides, what man, or set of
men, or what legislature, would Mr. Wildman entrust with the exercise of this
vague and anomalous power of deciding the point when the influence of Chris-
tian faith shall have attained the measure that shall entitle a slave to freedom ? —
Look at the mighty masses which float along the streets of London, and of
other great towns, and fill our villages throughout the length and breadth of this
Christian land, — how many of these would Mr. Wildman reckon to have
reached the degree of religiousknowledge which, if he were the absolute arbiterof
their destiny, would constitute their title to freedom, or leave them still to fetters
and the whip? Look, moreover, at the state and progress of society in all ages,
and in all countries ; in the present times as well as in the past ; in states highly
civilized, as well as in those advancing from barbarism ; in polished France, or
in less favoured portions of the globe. What statesman or even divine has ever
supposed that, however religion might advance the well-being of states and in-
dividuals, the capacity to fulfil the ordinary duties of civil life, the exercise of a man's
own limbs and faculties, the admission to the rights of nature and the protection
of law, were to be suspended on the efficacy of certain schools, and the success of
certain preachers of the Gospel ? Some Westlndians, and we are sorry to say some
bishops of the church, have wished to suspend the marriage tie, which from the
creation has been enjoined by the Creator on the whole race of man, on their
being able to understand the matrimonial service of the Church of England ;
but, if we understand Mr. Wildman correctly (and we should be sorry to do
him wrong, for few men have a larger share of our esteem, and even admiration),
his principle goes much farther even than this ; and we might have slavery to
endure for ever, if only the professors and teachers of Christianity shall be su-
pine, or obstacles to their success shall be wickedly interposed. Surely, also, Mr.
Wildman knows better than any man what indifferent lessons either of morality or
religion are likely to be learned in a state of slavery ; and that, though freedom
may be, and too often is, abused, yet that, of all the impediments to the difi'u-
sion of the influence of moral and religious truth which are not common to the
whole race of man, slavery is the worst.

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of J, Macgregor, Esq. 461

the Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction of the Negro
slaves. He has held the situation since 1822. He has corresponded
with the Bishops of Jamaica and Barbadoes, and received from them
various communications. Before the appointment of bishops, there
were nine persons employed by the Society in all the West Indies.
Since that time they do not send missionaries or chaplains, but
only catechists. One chaplain was sent to Lord. Seaford's estates, but
he died. The bishops are averse to having chaplains of the Society in
their dioceses, as it caused a collision of authorities, and was not quite
compatible with ecclesiastical discipline.* Dr. Barrett then delivered
in several reports, remarking that the late accounts were scanty,
owing to the hurricane in Barbadoes, and the rebellion in Jamaica ;
the communications at no time being copious. The persons now em-
ployed by the Society are lay catechists. There are about fifty in all
the islands. These are appointed by the bishops, and the Society at
home knows little of them. In Jamaica, some of them are book-
keepers, and some are persons of colour. He knows little about them,
and does not even know the principle on which they are selected.
Infant schools, on the plan of Mr. Wildman, were recommended by
the bishop, but none have been established by the Society, though
some have by a Ladies' Society, under the Duchess of Beaufort. Dr.
Barrett thinks the bishops have not generally complained of obstruc-
tions, but, on the contrary, have spoken favourably of the disposition
of the planters towards instruction. He cannot tell the number
of slaves under instruction in Jamaica, nor can he furnish any return.
Marriages are stated to have increased. He does not know whether the
book-keepers employed by the Bishop of Jamaica are moral men or not.
He does not believe that the Bishop thinks of extending that system ;
Dr. Barrett savs, he believes that reading is taught in all the schools of
the diocese of Barbadoes, but not to the same extent in that of Jamaica. f
All this is suflficiently frigid and unsatisfactory.

XX. William Burge, Esq., merely gave in a paper containing an
account of the expenditure in Jamaica for ecclesiastical or charitable
purposes, amounting, for the clergy of all descriptions, to £23,600
currency; for presbyterian teachers, to £1206; and for a Roman
Catholic Priest, to £200 ; besides £6000 for the Kingston Hospital,
and about £8650 for free schools and charitable seminaries, chiefly
intended for poor whites.

XXI. John Macgregor, Esq. This gentleman has never been in
the West Indies, and knows nothing of them ; but he has been in
North America, and has written a book entitled " British America,"

* Thus the spiritual interests of the slave population are to be postponed to
some ecclesiastical punctilio.

t Tlie fact is that, in Jamaica, the slaves who were taught reading by the Con-
version Society amounted, in 1829, to the mighty number of 210. Neither is it
true that in all the schools under the Bisliop of Barbadoes reading is taught. Ilis
oun reports show the contrary.

462 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

which contains a chapter about free Negroes, in which he gives an un-
favourable view of the state of some of that class, refugees from the
United States, who are settled in Canada ; but, as it contains
nothing which at all tends to throw light on the present enquiry, we
pass it over in silence.

We have now gone through the whole of the oral evidence taken
before this Committee. There still remains, however, some documen-
tary evidence to be considered. Of the population tables presented by
Mr. Amyot, we defer the consideration for the present, until we have
it in our power to exhibit a more full view of that whole subject than
these partial documents would enable us to do ; and, in the mean
time, we refer our readers to the Reporter, No. 100, as containing a
comprehensive view of the slave population of the British Colonies,
wholly unaffected by the tables now before us.

We omit also the meagre details extracted by Dr. Barrett from the
Conversion Society's Reports, as the substance of them is already
to be found in our pages, and there is nothing therefore to be drawn
either new or interesting.

But we cannot pass over so lightly the remainder of the document-
ary evidence contained in the appendix to this bulky volume. One
of them is entitled "Free and Slave Labour," and contains "an
extract from the examination of Annasamy (a native of Madras,
settled in the Mauritius), by the Commissioners who visited the Eastern
Colonies, to enquire into the means of improving those Colonies." It
is dated 16th August, 1827. We extract a few passages from this
document.

" What was the condition of the slaves on the estate of Bon Espoir, when you
purchased it in 1822? — Many of them were in bad health. Did they appear to
have been hard worked ? — It appeared to me that they ..had ; but I do not know
the fact, as I had not been on the estate before I purchased it. It appears that,
between 1822 and 1825, there were fifty deaths on the estate, or one-sixdi of the
whole number; will you explain the cause of this mortality ? — I have stated that
many of them were in bad health. Did you manage the estate yourself within
those periods ? — I did ; but there were overseers (European and Creole). Have
you been accustomed to regulate the quantity of work on your estate ? — I have.
What number of hours a day do the slaves work ? — From half-past four or five
o'clock in the morning till half past seven, and from eight till twelve o'clock, and
from half-past one till seven o'clock, Sundays excepted.* Do the women per-
form the same work that the men do? — Except the children and the pregnant
women, they perform the same field-work. The women are not employed in the
sugar house. Are women taken off work during the whole period of their preg-
nancy ? — From the third month to the period of their delivery. How soon do
they go to work after the child is born ? — They perform light work after three
months, making mats and such things, and after nme months they return to the
pioche (hoeing). Do many of the slave children die ? — I have more dian eighty
Negresses on the estate, and of those, not more than ten bear children; and I
reckon about four children born in a year, and about two that may live to five
years old. Then there has been a constant decrease on the numbers, from the
excess of deaths over births? — There has." " Vou are a9,quainted with the con-
dition of the labouring class in India? — I am. Do you consider that the con-
dition of the labourers in India is better or worse than that of the labouring

* Nineteen hours a day !

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Evidence of Captain Elliott. 463

slaves in this country ? — It is worse here. In what respect is it worse ? — Because
in India the labourers are paid for their labour, even those that are attached to
the land ; I speak of those parts that I have known. They also plough in India,
and here they work with the hand. Do the women labour in India as they do
here? — In cleansing and transplanting, but not in ploughing. Has it ever oc-
curred to you to cultivate your estate by free labourers from India ? — I thought
of it at one time ; but I altered my intention." " Do you conceive that it would
answer to employ them upon a property where there were no slaves ? — If they
were treated well, it would. Will you explain what you consider to be the treat-
ment which would be calculated to reconcile them to the employment? — They
would need such treatment and indulgences as they are accustomed to in their
own country, and I do not think they could expect to meet with them in this
colony." "Are you acquainted with the cultivation of sugar in India? — I have
seen it cultivated, but the mode of preparing the sugar is very inferior. Do you
consider that, by improved methods, as good sugar might be grown in India as is
grown at Mauritius ? — I think by the introduction of machinery and of iron
boilers, and also by cultivating the sugar canes in a better way, that better sugar
might be made in India. Have you an intention of returning to India? — -I have;
and it is my intention to cultivate sugar in India in the same manner that is
practised here. Would you employ slaves in the cultivation in India? — No;
only free labourers. What part of India that you are acquainted with do you
conceive best adapted to the production of sugar ? — Bengal is best suited, but I
think of first trying the cultivation upon the Coromandel coast, near my native
country. What capital would you consider necessary to enable you to form an
establishment for the cultivation and preparation of sugar in India, upon the scale
of that which you possess in this colony? — If I select good land and well watered,
farming it either from Government or individuals, I conceive that 50,000 rupees,
or £5000, would enable me to form a complete establishment on the same scale;
and the profits would be very considerable, if the rents were settled not too high.
Do you consider that the profits of your capital would be much greater than
those you derive from your present estate? — They would certainly be much
greater, as there would be profit and no loss, either from interest of capital in-
. vested in land or slaves, or by death of slaves. What do you reckon would be
the difference in the cost of maintaining your slaves, and of maintaining hired
labourers in India ? If I buy a slave for 400 dollars, and as interest here is 12
per cent, per annum, the interest on 400 dollars is four dollars a month, and
reckoning the food and clothing at IJ dollar a month, the expense on each slave
is 5i dollars ; and I could hire a labourer in India at 2 dollars, or 4 rupees, in-
cluding his food. Do you consider that an Indian labourer will do as much
work as a Mozambique slave ? The Indians have more skill and intelligence,
and will do more work in their own country than the slaves."

/o- i\ W. J^I. S. Colebrook, } ^ • . „^ .

(bigned) j^ j^i^^-^^ ■ S Commissioners of Enquiry.

The next document is entitled " remarks on the means of im-
proving the system by which labour is exacted in the Slave Colo-
nies, by Captain Elliott, R. N., Protector of slaves, for British Guiana,
18th January, 1832." We must be content with extracts from it,
premising that we introduce them chiefly, not under any idea that the
present brutal system of forced labour as it exists in Guiana is to be
continued, even for a single year, under the very best modifications
which Captain Elliott has feit himself at liberty to suggest, but that our
readers may see the enormous extent of the evil, the cruel and grinding
oppression, which the people of this country, through their representa-
tives, are now called upon to redress, or rather wholly to extinguish.

464 Report of a Committee of the House of Comrnons

" Guiana, January 18, 1832.

" In the general remarks appended to the Report which I have to-day had the
honour to deliver to his Excellency the Governor, I felt it necessary to abstain
from entering into any explanation of the causes to which I attribute the deplor-
able increase in the Punishment Returns for the half year eliding on June 30th,
1831."

" The largely increasing Punishment Returns clearly prove that the actual sys-
tem of coercion, extensively as it is used, is perfectly inadequate to ensure the
completion of the quantum of labour, which it is loudly declared the slaves could
easily finish, if they were disposed to make the effort ; and a further consideration
of the punishments recorded for non-completion of work, during the last eighteen
months, must lead to the inference that at least a fifth of the work allotted
has fallen short under the inefficacy of the present mode of securing its per-
formance.

" Either this position must be admitted, or the painful conclusion will present
itself, that the punishments have been inflicted to a great extent for the non-com-
pletion of work which circumstances of unfavourable weather and other causes
of difficulty rendered impossible of performance."

" It is not my purpose to contend that the slaves will work regularly for wages,
and I am perfectly aware that regularity of work is absolutely necessary in the
cultivation of the ordinary produce of these countries ; but if they know that the
power to coerce them be left, surely it is rational to conclude that they would
rather choose to work industriously, with a hope to acquire profit and gain time,
than they would perversely determine to work ill and late, to the exclusion of all
chance of advantage, and under a strong apprehension of receiving punishment.

" A great love of money, a passionate admiration of dress and finery, and a re-
markable proneness to imitate all the habits of expense of the whites, are the
well known characteristics of the Negro race ; and certainly such qualities pre-
sent the most favourable means for powerfully seconding the efficacy of a safe
and judiciously directed course of encouragement, involving the immediate and
great modification and eventually the complete disuse of a system at once de-
grading, irritating, and inefficacious."

" Considering the subject in this light, let it be supposed that eacli person who
produced, at the end of every week, a certificate from the manager or overseer
that he had been employed the whole of the week, and had each day completed
the task allotted to him, should be entitled to his proportion of the value of the
produce of that week's labour. In the early institution of such a system, it is ob-
vious that the payments should be very prompt, and, above all, it should be
carefully insisted upon that no approach to the payment of wages by truck
should be admissible ; the amount should vary according to the strength and
skill of the labourers, dividing them for that purpose into two or three gangs, ac-
cording to the extent of the population and its state.

" To those who are employed in the more responsible situations, and in those
parts of the process which require adroitness and attention, proportionably larger
wages should be paid.

" Such a mode of regulating the scale of distribution would induce a disposi-
tion to deserve reputation for fidelity and care, and would beget an industrious
inclination to acquire a knowledge of the more skilful branches of the business.

" Those who could produce certificates that they had performed more than
their allotted tasks should receive payment, according to a just estimate of the
surplus labour they had performed."

After mentioning a few of the advantages which would necessarily
result from this modified system of wages. Captain Elliott thus
proceeds : —

" If the slaves resorted to their daily labour, impelled by the hope of acquir-
ing pfofit, I am satisfied that, one day in the week taken with another, they

on the Extinction of Slavery. — Statement of Capt. Elliott. 465

would perform in the course of six days at least a third more work than can be
procured from them under actual circumstances : and, as soon too as they began
to touch the means of extending their comforts, and enjoying the conveniences
of life, by the honest efforts of their own industry, great and advantageous
changes would be effected in the whole structure of society. Small retail deal-
ers would find it worth their while to establish themselves in the vicinity of the
large estates, and the proprietors would gladly encourage them to do so ; because
it would have the effect of keeping their slaves at home, and enable them to di-
rect and control their habits of expense, besides, in other respects, greatly im-
proving the value of their properties. Villages would gradually grow up in the
populous neighbourhoods for the location of tradesmen and rural artisans ; dis-
trict markets would be established ; industrious competition would take place in
all species of profitable occupation ; the price of labour would diminish with the
price of provisions, and the whole machinery of civilization would fall into vi-
gorous action.

" The present mode of endeavouring to insure the performance of labour is
every day becoming more distinctly inadequate, and, upon the whole, when the
utterly inefficacious nature of the system is considered, — when it is remembered
that, under such circumstances, the rapidly advancing intelligence of the Negro
must principally develope itself in an increasing dexterity, by all manner of
means, to evade and defeat it, — I cannot refrain from declaring it to be no source
of astonishment to me that the punishment returns for the half-year ending June
30, 1831, are so large as it has been my painful duty to record them to be.
That they will continue to increase may be taken as certain ; and I am convinced
I speak the sentiments of the most reflecting gentlemen in the country in saying
that this state of things cannot continue to subsist. The slave has advanced be-
yond such a system of government, and the attempt to overtake and arrest him
in his career by an increasing degree of severity, would be fatal indeed ; but,
docile and forbearing, it would be a work of little difficulty beneficially to direct
his energies and uses by the immediate and judicious substitution of better
means." — p. 590, 591.

" It is a great mistake to suppose that the respectable and reflecting portion of
society in this country do not clearly perceive that the slave population is much
improved ; but perhaps the very greatest misfortune of slavery is its inaptitude
to adapt itself to those changes which it is in its very nature to insist upon. The
system stands still, while it forces the slave into a state of intelligence demanding
a form of government of much more extended resource for his safe direction.—
To yield any thing, it is said, is to abandon all ; but this is an extremely unsatis-
fory ground for resisting the legal sanction, and rejecting the direction of im-
provement which it is impossible to prevent ; and, in short, to modify nothing
in the shape of slavery, would be to manifest the semblance of complete power,
risking, in reality, all the tremendous consequences of perfect weakness.

" It is a source of bitter complaint in this country, that the constant expecta-
tion of legislation from England is calculated to produce the most unfortunate
effects on the minds of the slaves ; and it is represented that the consequences of
such a state of vague impatience on the one hand, and of alarm and consequent
disinclination on the other, are calculated seriously to retard the progress of ame-
lioration.

" If all had been done and were still doing, which might have been effected
by the proprietors themselves, with real advantage to their own interests, to meet
the feelings of the country, so unequivocally expressed in Mr. Canning's Reso-
lutions of 1823, unanimously adopted by both Houses of Parliament, there
would have been as little necessity, as there can have been little inclination, to
legislate upon this subject at all.

" I am convinced, however, that no thinking man of experience in the West
Indies could deny, upon calm and deliberate reflection, that, if there had been

3 P

466 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

no legislation at all on the subject of amelioration, the difficulties of this ques-
tion, so far as they regard the state of the people, would be much greater than
they are at present. The increased intelligence of the slave would have daily
demanded an increasing degree of vigour to coerce him to work ; but consider
the actual condition of this population, and then let it be fairly answered, whe-
ther such a state of things could have continued to exist without, long ere this,
having produced some fatal and irreparable convulsion.

" The necessity of ameliorating legislation of a progressive tendency has, un-
fortunately, been forced upon the government by the disinclination to legislate
effectively with such a view on this side of the Atlantic. It is superfluous to say
that there is very little disposition in this country frankly to accept these laws; and
the painful consequence is, that the slave has not derived all the advantage from
them which it has been the object of Flis Majesty's Government to extend to
him. Men read them carefully indeed, rather to cavil at, and with a view to
evade, than to conform to them. However zealous His Majesty's officers may
be in all branches of the public service charged with their administration, it must
be obvious that, in this unfavourable state of feeling upon the part of the pro-
prietary, and with a slave population dispersed over a vast tract of country, the
means of insuring and insisting upon the observance of a body of law (neces-
sarily very detailed in its nature) are small and slow of operation.

" Such legislation, however excellent it may be, cannot provide for every exi-
gency in the relative transactions of master and slave ; and it is difficult to doubt
that the least omission, or dubious construction, until the point can be submitted
to legal interpretation, will be made to press against the slave. Nay, in too many
cases (the truth ought not be concealed), the very letter of the law will be exe-
cuted in such a temper of irritation as will render it rather a source of incon-
venience than of relief. Here then is the slave population clearly convinced of
the benevolent intentions of His Majesty's Government and the British public in
their behalf, and perfectly sensible, on the other hand, that these intentions are
frustrated to no inconsiderable extent by the feeling widi which the laws are re-
ceived and acted upon in this country. The probable consequence of this un-
fortunate state of things is seriously to be dreaded."

" It is impossible to observe the actual condition and habits of the Negro race
in the West Indies, even in the most casual manner, and to consider the state of
public feeling in England on the subject of slavery, without being powerfully
struck by the reflection not only that the necessity for a great change is ripe, but
with how little cheerful co-operation immensely beneficial modifications, involv-
ing progressive and rapid advancement, mig;ht at once be safely produced.

"In conclusion, I cannot help expressing ray conviction that, by the conces-
sion of a reasonable share of the profits of their own exertions to these people,
they would in no long lapse of time have tranquilly and legally possessed them-
selves of a deep interest in the maintenance of peace and order, and in the increase
of the wealth and importance of the colonies." — p. 592, 593.

The only remaining document consists of answers returned by Cap-
tain Elliott to questions addressed by Viscount Goderich, relating to
the treatment of slaves in British Guiana.

*' 1 . At what hour in the morning is the daily task commenced ?"
" The legal hours for field labour are from six in the morning till six in the
evening, with two hours of interval allowed for rest and meals. The first signal
of preparation is made ordinarily by a bell at four to half-past four. The time
of departure from home depends on the nearness or remoteness of the field; but
the daily task may be said to have fairly commenced at from six to seven, a. m.
There is no habitual work done by the slaves before they set out for the field,
except preparing and eating their breakfast." — p. 594.

on the Extinction of Slavery.— Statement of Capt. Elliott. 467

" 2. At what hour in the evening is the work usually finished ?"
" It would be futile to attempt to deduce," says Captain Elliott, " any general
average hours in the evening when the task of all the slaves is finished."

But he goes on to state as follows : —

"When the whip was no longer allowed to be kept in the field, as a stimulus
to labour, it became absolutely necessary to substitute some other motive for
the completion of work."

" In the absence then of immediate coercive stimulus [and in this point the
amelioration has been complete, and the advantage to all parties convincing] the
performance of labour by ' task' was the most obvious means of presenting a
sufficient inducement to industrious application; and certainly, exercised as
such a system ought to be, it is difficult to doubt that it would be alike effica-
cious, both for the prevention of punishment and the completion of as large a
quantity of work as it is reasonable can be completed ; that is to say, reasonable,
considered with relation to the amount and strength of the population employed,
and the extent of the soil to be maintained in a state of cultivation.

" It is certainly natural to conjecture that, for the successful institution of the
performance of labour by task, the system should have been minutely explained
to the slaves, and its advantages made obviously manifest to them. In short, it
was to be supposed that the adoption of the system was the result of an agree
ment between the master and his slave.

" ' The law,' under this view, would the master have said to his slave, ' allows
me to employ you for ten hours in the field, between six in the morning and six
in the evening, and it allows you two hours of that interval for rest and meals ;
now, would you rather that I should insist upon your employment for the ten
hours the law has permitted without fixing any stated portion of work, punishing
you if I were not satisfied with the amount you had completed, or, on the other
hand, would you prefer to have a certain portion of work allotted to you, which, by
reasonable vigorous exertion, you may complete in much less time than ten hours ?

" * In t'lis last case, if you choose to work continuously, all the time that you
do gain upon the ten hours allowed to me by law (and you need only trifiingly
encroach upon the other two hours to refresh yourselves from time to time) may
be added to the time you have economised of your own, and thus, at the close
of your work, you will have a large portion of the afternoon wholly for your-
selves.'

"• It does not appear that the adoption of the task system has been the result of
such explanation and agreement as I have adverted to. I cannot discover that
the work is performed by task because the slave has been led to perceive it was
most advantageous for him that it should be so performed.

" After very attentive enquiry, it does not seem to me that any option was left
to him on the subject. Certain portions of work are allotted to him, and he has
been broadly told, ' I know you can do that quantity of work, and if you do
not, you shall be punished.' This is indeed to give a task ; but it is not the
allotment of work accompanied by an obvious motive to encourage its comple-
tion ; it is surely not the adoption of the task system in the manner the subject
was alluded to by the Memorialists (connected Avith these Colonies) to the King
in Council in the year 1825.

" The manner in which the slave will naturally regard the matter is this : can
he complete the task in such a portion of time as makes it worth his while to
work vigorously ? If he can complete it by about 3 p. m., it is because in that
case he would gain at least an hour upon the lawful period for his employment
allowed to his master; but if the task will occupy him (the strength of one
person considered with regard to that of another) till four, or perhaps five in the
afternoon, what does he gain by such a system of portioning the labour? Where
is his encouragement to endeavour to complete the work ? It would be better
for him that no fixed quantity of work should be allotted, but that his master

468 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

should exact the ten hours of his employment in the field which the law has
sanctioned, and that the slave should enjoy the two hours of remission between
six in the morning and six in the evening.

" It is true that the quantum of the different species of field labour allotted to
each person on sugar estates is nominally not very dissimilar ; hut is it always
similarly judiciously modified according to the state of the field, the weather, tiie
health, strength, and sex of the labourer? I greatly fear it is not.

" In the fact that the system is perfectly and successfully practised on certain
estates, is to be found the most convincing proof of its complete efficacy ; and I
know that in those estates tlie great principle of the rule is, to take especial care
that the labour of each day is proportioned according to all the circumstances
demanding consideration. The task allotted to each person is such a quantum
as it is quite clear can be performed by iliat person in eight, or eight hours and
a half of reasonably vigorous labour ; and the result of this simple and excellent
principle is apparent in a diminished return of punishment, and a sustained, if
not an increased return of produce.

" The task system, efficaciously practised, is the dawning of the production of
sugar by the payment of wages. The master who pursues it humanely and
skilfully finds it his interest, upon every account, to offer the slave the payment
of an hour or two hours of the time allowed him by law for the employment of
that slave, and, if this last finds that the work is so proportioned that he really
can gain the offered price, he will be sufficiently disposed to make the effort ;
but in too many cases that offered price is unattainable, and therefore, of course,
the effort is not made." — p. 594, 595.

" The task must not be increased because the slave, by dint of industrious
practice, comes to perform it sooner than he did at first. It is obvious that, if
the strictest faith be not unfailingly kept with the slave in this respect, he will be
little disposed to work industriously.

" I should be glad to believe that such a case has not occurred ; but at all
events, if it has, it cannot be matter of surprise that such a practice of the task
system has failed of success. The slave would be little inclined to work indus-
triously if he felt that the early completion of his labour to-day would produce the
allotment of a larger task to-morrow."

" On those estates where the task system is practised as it seems to be just
to the slave, and advantageous to the master that it should be practised, the slaves
employed in agricultural labour (one day taken with another throughout the year)
have completed their task in the field at some time before 3 p. m.

" On many estates in this Colony, under present circumstances, the slaves
employed in agricultural labour (one day with another throughout the year)
leave off their work in the field (task is rarely ever completed) some time between
the hours of 4 and 6 p. m., and usually nearer 6 than 4.

" I will not close these remarks without observing that in a recent conversa-
tion with a highly sensible gentleman (a proprietor in this Colony), on the mis-
taken policy of allotting such large portions of work to the slaves, or at all events
not attending sufficiently to the modification of it according to circumstances, he
said to me, that he was so satisfied of the truth of that view, that whenever his
manager complained to him that the people did not complete their work, he was
persuaded, and always discovered, that more had been allotted than it was
reasonable to expect the slaves would strive vigorously to complete. In fact, it
appeared either that there was no motive for industry, or that it was not suffi-
ciently encouraging.

" This gentleman's return of punishment and return of produce are demon-
strative of the truth of his opinions, and the advantage of his practice."

" It must be admitted that there is no cordial disposition frankly to accept and
execute such legislation, and the means of enforcing an enactment of this kind,
which could not fail to be generally obnoxious, are small, and extremely slow
of operation." — p. 596-

on the Extinction of Slavery .—Statement of Capt. Elliott. 46&

" 3. What is the ordinary length of the intervals of rest allowed during the
day? and is that rest generally complete, or are there any duties to be performed
either for the owner or for the more immediate advantage of the slave himself?"

" The slaves on those estates where the tsisk system is properly practised take
what rest they please in the field as it suits them, but, as they surely complete
their tasks (one day with another throughout the year) some time before 3 p. m.,
they are always certain to gain an hour more than the time allowed them by law
for rest and meals.

" The slaves upon most estates in this Colony, under present circumstances,
probably enjoy about two hours of uninterrupted time for rest and meals during
the period of their occupation in the field.

" It is almost the universal practice in this Colony to require that each field
slave should collect a bundle of grass, and deposit it in the yard of the buildings,
after the day's labour be closed. This bundle weighs, on a fair average, perhaps
about eight pounds, and it is probably most frequently collected during the
course of the day's work in the fields."

" In allotting the day's task to a slave, I think it would be fair to give him
half an hour for the collection, bringing home, and depositing of his grass; pro-
portioning the agricultural part of the task so that it could be finished in seven
hours and a half; and for the collection, &c. &c., of the grass, half an hour more.

The slave has of course to atteiid afterwards to all his ordinary do-
mestic and culinary offices.

" 4. To what extent is labour required by night ? how many nights or parts
of nights is the same slave usually employed, and during what part of the year is
nocturnal labour in use ?"

The law provides that the slave shall enjoy at least eight hours' rest
in the twenty-four.

In this country there is no regular time of crop. It occupies about
ten days in every month, or about a third of the year. About twenty-
four slaves are always about the works. The fire is lighted about four
A.M., and extinguished about ten p.m. The slave, therefore, may
enjoy eight hours of uninterrupted rest. Capt. Elliott alludes to the
practice of having four or five people of the field during the night
employed the whole year round as watchmen, and who are allowed
no extra time either for preparation before the watch begins, or for
rest after it is finished. The practice, he says, is not defensible, and
ought to be prohibited (p. 597, 598).

" 5. What is the average nature, amount, weight, and quality of the food al-
lowed to plantation slaves, male and female, adults and children respectively?"

We know the schedule of the food and clothing required by law in
Demerara ; and it is miserably scanty (see Reporter, vol. iv. No. 82,
p. 294). " But," observes Captain Elliott,

*' It would be unjust to omit to remark, that the amount of the food allowed
is, in general, less than the amount provided. Indeed I cannot help thinking
that the slave has gained nothing by the enactment of this portion of the law.
The proprietors of the large estates are generally liberal in these points, and their
poorer neighbours are almost constrained to conform to their practice." — p. 598.

He adds that much has been done to diminish the amount, and fa-
cilitate the performance of manual labour. Cattle have been substi-

470 Report of a Committee of the House of Commons

tuted for men to tow punts on the canals. Rail-roads have been
constructed for removing the megass from the mill, an alleviation
of an extremely pressing species of labour, principally performed by
the women, and frequently with injurious consequences. And other
improvements have been introduced to alleviate labour ; and credit is
due to the humanity of those who have promoted these changes
(p. 5"98).

Having now given to the public a faithful abstract of the voluminous
evidence laid before the Committee of the House of Commons in the
last Session, before we proceed to lay before them the still more
voluminous evidence taken by the Committee of the House of Lords,
■we would beg to make a few brief observations on the present state of
the Slavery Question.

That the abolitionists have fully established their case in evidence,
no disinterested and candid man who reads the preceding pages with
attention will venture to deny. They have shown, not only that the
slaves will incur no risk of suffering want by emancipation, but that
their speedy emancipation affords the only rational prospect of pre-
serving the public peace, and of securing the permanent interests of
the planters themselves.

That this view of the subject will not be shaken, but, on the con-
trary, will be amply confirmed by the result of the evidence, which,
under far different auspices, and with far different objects, was laid
before the Committee of the House of Lords, we take it upon us most
unhesitatingly to assert. And to this result we should come, even if
we were to confine our view solely and exclusively to the pro-slavery
part of the case as by them exhibited.— A pamphlet, however, has just
appeared, certainly the production of no feeble pen, which, mean-
while, may be perused by every man who feels an interest in this
great question ; and it will at least render the unavoidable delay
that must take place in abstracting the whole of the evidence of the
House of Lords, containing 1394 closely printed folio pages, less a
subject of regret than it otherwise would be. And here the West
Indians will have no right to complain, because, though the review of
our anonymous author be ex parte, it is nevertheless an exhibition of
their own evidence exclusively, leaving out of view the adverse testi-
mony.

The pamphlet to which we allude, and to which we leave, in the
mean time, the task of repelling the objection that we have produced
only a part of the evidence brought before parliament, bears the
quaint signature of Legion — and is entitled " A Letter to His Grace
the Duke of Richmond, Chairman of the Slavery Committee in the
House of Lords, containing ah Exposure of the Character of the
Evidence on the Colonial side produced before the Committee." — It
is printed for Bagster, 15, Paternoster Row.

on the Extinction of Slavery .—Concluding Remarks. All

Now, we mean not to be considered as justifying the style in
certain expressions of this able and caustic writer ; but what we mean
confidently to affirm is this, that he has completely overthrown the
whole weight and credit of the pro-slavery evidence brought forward
in the Committee of the House of Lords ; so that we may argue on the
basis of that produced before the Committee of the House of Commons,
without the slightest apprehension that any inference, which may be
fairly deducible thence, shall be refuted by that of the Lords' Com-
mittee.

If, then, we are right in affirming that the abolitionists have proved
their case, and that colonial slavery, admitted to be a crime of the
deepest dye, may be abolished forthwith without injury to the great
sufferers by that crime, and without danger either to the public peace
or, but by their own fault, to the persons and property of the planters,
there can then exist no adequate motive for a day's delay'in proceed-
ing to its extinction. Such delay, indeed, is to be deprecated, not
more on account of the slaves than on that of their masters ; the pro-
longation of the miseries of the former being only an increase of the
risks, both as to life and property, of the latter.

The simple ground, however, on which we are disposed, and indeed
can alone consent to place the question is this. Colonial Slavery is in
itself a CRIME of the greatest enormity, besides being the parent of
innumerable other crimes. It is an outrage on every principle of
humanity and justice, and a flagrant violation of the spirit and pre-
cepts of Christianity. From the moment that this, its real nature, has
been recognised there could exist no plea for permitting it to continue
for an hour, but a well founded apprehension of injury to its victims from
abolishing it. This apprehension, however, the offspring not of reason,
but of mere prejudice, has now been demonstrated to be unfounded,
and that with a clearness and force of evidence which cannot be re-
sisted. What remains therefore for a Christian Government and
Parliament to do but to pronounce its immediate and utter extinction,
accompanying the measure by such wise and just precautions as may
obviate the alarms of the most timid ?

We are perfectly borne out in this view of the nation's duty by
the often repeated and unequivocal declarations of not a few of his
Majesty's present ministers : —

" I consider," says one who, though not actually a Cabinet minis-
ter, speaks on this particular point with the authority of one, we mean
Lord Howick : " I consider the whole system of slavery one of such
deep oppression, and iniquity, and cruelty, that, if I could be satisfied
it was safe to emancipate the slaves now, I would say, ' Do so ; and
do it at once ;' and we will settle scores among ourselves afterwards,
and determine in what proportion the penalty of our guilt is to be paid.
But the victims of that ^m\i must not continue for one hour to suffer,
while we are haggling about pounds, shillings, and pence."

472 Reiiort of a Committee of the House of Commons, S^c.

To this course, then, of taking immediate measures for the extinc-
tion of slavery, we can conceive but one possible objection on the
part of the West Indians. It may be said that the examination of
■evidence in the two Committees was not completed at the close of the
last session. But that examination, be it remembered, was wrung from
the Government by the clamorous importunities of the whole West
India body ; and, before it commenced. Lord Goderich had already,
in his circular despatch to the colonial governors of the 5th November,
1831, adduced the most conclusive and unanswerable reasons
against the necessity of instituting any such enquiry. But, now that
the opportunity has been reluctantly conceded to ' the colonists of
bringing forward the best evidence which the whole range of the West
Indies could supply, and that the result has been such as we have
seen, we cannot believe that any government or any parliament will
listen to a single plea for a moment's farther delay on that score. There
can be no real pretence for hearing farther evidence (Lord Goderich
himself being our witness), but delay ; and therefore, on those who
shall consent on that ground to renew so perfectly useless an enquiry,
we must charge, before God and their country, all the awful respon-
sibility that may follow such postponement. Neither the Government
nor the Parliament, we are persuaded, will assent a second time to
any such unreasonable proposition ; but if, unhappily, our expecta-
tions in this respect should be disappointed, the people of the United
Kingdom will not be. satisfied with the decision, and will regard it as
a virtual deviation from the numerous pledges so solemnly given on the
hustings, at the late elections, and of which they will naturally de-
mand a strict fulfilment.

Let the bill, therefore, which is to seal the death-warrant of slavery
in every corner of the British empire, be brought in without any un-
necessary delay, and let the irreversible decree go forth that that foul
stain on the national character shall be effaced for ever.

When that too long delayed act of unquestionable justice shall
have been performed, we shall then, with Lord Howick, deem it full
time to consider, with every regard to equity, the question of the in-
demnities which ou^ht to follow it.

ERRATA.

p. 314, line 10 from bottom, after leave read unnoticed.

318,
321,
322-
327,
329,
339,
511,
358,
361,
366,

1 ,, for /ifl ye read /las.
'20 from top, for 1828 read 1829.

2 ,, for 1826 read 1825.

3 ,, for me read him.

10 from bottom, for cocoas read cocoes.

19 ,, for estate was read estates wre.

I of note, for restrictions read resolutions.
15 from top, after states read facts.
25 ,, after prejudice read said Mr. Duncan.

5 from bottom, for it is my read it ivas his.
24, 25, 26, 28, let the third person be substituted for the first— and a few
similar corrections will be required in other places, but so obviously
as not to need specification.

Loii(loii':-S. Bagster, Jim., Printer, 14, BartlKiloinew Close.

ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER.

No. 105.] FEBRUARY, 1833. [Vol. v. No. 14.

ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT OF THE LORDS' COMMITTEES
ON THE CONDITION AND TREATMENT OF THE COLONIAL
SLAVES, AND OF THE EVIDENCE TAKEN BY THEM ON
THAT SUBJECT; WITH NOTES BY THE EDITOR.

The Committee of the House of Lords commenced its sittings on the
13th May, and closed them on the 9th August, 1832.

The following 25 Peers were named upon it : — ^The Archbishop of
Canterbury, and the Bishops of London and of Lichfield and Coventry;
the Dukes of Buckingham* and Richmond ; the Marquises of Sligo*
and Westminster ; Earls Harewood,* Radnor, Selkirk,* and Bath-
urst ; Viscounts Goderich, St. Vincent,* Combermere,* and Beres-
ford ; and Lords Seaford,* Ellenborough, Suffield, Holland,* Howard
de Walden,* Redesdale, Colville,* Napier, Auckland, and Bexley.
Of these, the 10 noblemen distinguished by an asterisk are known
to be either slave-holders or the very near relatives of those who are.
The three prelates, together with the Marquis of Westminster, Earl
Bathurst, Viscount Goderich, and Lord Bexley, it is reported, took
no part in the Committee. The Duke of Richmond occupied the
chair ; and of the remaining seven not one was recognized as a
decided friend to anti-slavery principles, excepting Lord Suffield ; the
views of the other six being, to say the least, doubtful.

It was before a Committee thus constituted, as respected at least its
practical efficiency, that this great question came on for investigation.
Can any man wonder that the friends of the Negro regarded its
appointment with some degree of apprehension and even dismay ?
That their fears have been agreeably disappointed by the result, they
must attribute to causes wholly independent of the constitution of the
Committee, and which, under the overruling providence of God, are to
be traced rather to the happy ignorance prevailing, among most of the
noble slave-holders who attended the Committee, of the real nature
of the system they were so eager to maintain, than to any skill they
possessed either to veil its deformities or to give prominence to any,
if any there were, of its inherent claims to support. With one or two
exceptions, none of them were personally acquainted with the ob-
ject of their attachment. They may have previously known it only
from the florid and delusive descriptions of interested agents, and were
proba.bly as much appalled by the disclosure of its undisguised linea-
ments as certain monarchs are said to have been shocked by the
naked forms of the consorts to whom they found themselves united
by proxy.

The following is the indecisive report of this Committee : " The Com-
mittee have applied themselves to the matters referred to them, and

3 Q

474 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

considering that there was no prospect of their being able to examine
into the state of all the West India Colonies dnring the continuance
of the present session, came to an early determination to confine
their enquiry, in the first instance, to the island of Jamaica ; and
though they have collected much evidence upon the condition of the
slaves in that island, some' of which is of the most contradictory
description, yet they have not found it possible to enter into a
detailed examination of many of the other points referred to them ;
and upon none has their inquiry been so complete as to enable them
to submit to the House any definitive opinion. They have, amongst
others, called before them planters, managers, and proprietors of
estates, attorneys, overseers, persons having connection with the
island, or who have visited it in public capacities, and missionaries of
different persuasions ; and the most material points brought under
their notice have been — 1st. Any progressive improvement which
may have taken place in the state of the slaves since the abolition of
the slave trade in 1807. 2nd. The actual state and condition of the
slaves ; the nature and duration of their labour ; and also evidence as
to instances of cruelty and gross abuse of authority and power.
3rd. The increase or decrease of the slave population as it respects
Africans and Creoles, and as affected or not by the state and system
of slavery. — And 4th. Plans for improving the condition of the slave,
or effecting his emancipation ; and opinions as to the probable con-
dition of the Negro, and the effect upon society and property in the
island which is likely to be produced by such emancipation.

" Beyond this the enquiry has unavoidably diverged into various
collateral matters, from which the Committee could not abstain with-
out omitting many important points, the consideration of which would
be essential to a satisfactory conclusion.

" Under these circumstances, adverting to the advanced period of
the session, and to the probable arrival of persons of authority from
Jamaica, whose evidence would be most desirable, they have deter-
mined to postpone the consideration of any detailed report, and
simply to lay the evidence collected before the House, with such an
index as may enable the House, without difficulty, to refer to the
information which has been obtained upon any of the objects of
enquiry."

The evidence thus taken fills nearly 1400 folio pages, many of them
closely printed, and which certainly form altogether a most ponde-
rous and unwieldy mass. The utmost, therefore, we can hope to
accomplish, within any reasonable limits, is to give a very compressed
view of their multitudinous contents.

The pro-slavery witnesses examined by the Committee were as fol-
lows : —

1 . The Duke of Manchester, who was Governor of Jamaica for
18 years, from 1807 to 1826 (p. 3—12 and p. 379—390).

2. Henry John Hinchcliffe, Esq., Judge of the Vice-Admiralty
Court of Jamaica, who resided in Jamaica 17 years, from 1801 to
1818 (p. 13—22 ; p. 322—328 ; and p. 339—345).

3. John Baillie, Esq., a planter and manager of estates in Jamaica,

on Colonial Slavery. 475

who resided in Jamaica from 1788 to 1815, being 27 years ; and after-
wards revisited it in 1822 and 1825 (p. 22 — 25; 29—78; and
92—163).

4. Lord Seaford, a member of the Committee and a Jamaica
planter (p. 88—92).

5. Major-General Sir John Keane, K. C. B., late lieutenant-governor
and commander-in-chief of Jamaica, who resided there eight years,
from 1823 to 1830 (p. 163—185).

6. William Shand, Esq., a Jamaica proprietor, attorney, and
manager, who resided there from 1791 to 1823 ; revisiting it again for
a year and a half in 1825 and 1826; being nearly 34 years in all
(p. 187—245).

7. Sir Michael Clare, M. D., who resided, with occasional ab-
sences, 30 years in Jamaica, viz., between 1798 and 1831 (p. 263
—290).

8. Admiral Sir Lawrence Halsted, K. C.B., late commander-
in-chief on the Jamaica station from 1823 to 1827 (p. 291 — 305
and p. 321).

9. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Macdonalo, of the Artillery,
stationed for about five months in Jamaica, in 1829 and 1830, and for
about six months in Honduras (p. 305 — 320 and p. 391 — 395).

1 1 . Rev. James Curtin, a missionary, and afterwards a parochial
clergyman, in Antigua. He resided there from 1799 to 1830, in
all 30 years (p. 345—367 and 396—412).

12. Lord HoAVARB de Walden, a member of the Committee and a
West-India proprietor (p. 369).

13. Rev. Dr. Barrett, secretary of the Conversion Society (p.
370—379).

14. Edmund Sharp, a Jamaica overseer for about 20 years, be-
tween 1811 and 1832 (p. 779—790).

15. Andreav Graham Dignum, a solicitor residing in Jamaica for
14 years, from 1818 to 1832 (p. 812—825 and p. 956—961).

16. William Bitrge, Esq., late attorney- general of Jamaica, and
now agent of that colony ; owner of a coffee plantation ; who resided
there 20 years, from 1808 to 1828 (p. 965—976, 981—993, and
997_1042).

17. William Thomas, a Berbice planter, resident therefor 15 years
prior to 1832 (p. 1065—1071).

18. E. J. WoLSEY, who resided at Hayti for six months and in the
United States for three years (p. 1057 — 1065).

Besides these witnesses various papers and abstracts were produced,
in the course of the enquiry, by Thomas Amyott, Esq., registrar of
colonial slaves (p. 27 — 29); R. G. Amyott, Esq., his chief clerk (p.
81—88; 248—261 ; 449—455; and 1079) ; and also by Mr. Edward
Irving, an accountant (p. 976— 979; 993—996; 1010—1013; 1072,
and 1073; and 1076 and 1077); and by Mr. E. R. Fayerman (p.
1013).

The anti-slavery witnesses were nine in number, viz. —
1. Rev. John Barry, a Wesleyan missionary, who quitted Ja-
maica in 1832, after residing there six years (p. 412--448, and
456—548).

476 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

2. Vice-Admiral the Hon. Charles E. Fleming, commander-in-
chief on the Jamaica station from 1827 to 1830 (p. 548—563).

3. William Taylor, Esq., a merchant and manager of estates in
Jamaica for 13 years, between 1816 and 1831 (p. 5Q5 — 533),

4. Rev. Peter Duncan, a Wesleyan missionary during more than
11 years in Jamaica, from 1821 to 1832 (p. 635—706).

5. Rev. Thomas Morgan, a Wesleyan missionary, who resided in
Jamaica and other West-India islands for 16 years, between 1812 and
1831 (p. 707—722).

6. Rev. William Knibb, a Baptist missionary, who resided in Ja-
maica seven years, from 1825 to 1832 (p. 723—779, and 801—810).

7. Rev. Thomas Cooper, a Unitarian missionary, who resided in
Jamaica upwards of three years, from 1818 to 1821 (p. 790 — 799, and
810—812).

8. Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq., M. P. (p. 827—956).

9. Rev. John Thorpe, a clergyman of the established church, who
resided in Jamaica for nearly three years, in 1827, 1828, and 1829
(p. 1048—1750).

Besides the examinations of these witnesses the Report contains
a great mass of documentary evidence, to which we shall specifi-
cally advert after we have given a brief abstract of the oral testimony
on both sides, beginning with that which was adduced in favour of
Slavery.

PRO-SLAVERY WITNESSES,
1. The Duke or Manchester.

It is hardly possible to conceive any thing more meagre and unsa-
tisfactory than the testimony given by this nobleman. After having
filled the high office of governor of Jamaica for 18 years, during the
interesting period which extended from the date of the abolition of the
slave-trade, in 1807, to the passing of the disallowed slave-law (mis-
named ameliorating) of 1826, he appears to know as little either of the
events which took place under his government, or of the spirit and
temper of the different classes of the population subject to his rule, or
of the laws which he was appointed to administer, or of the changes
in those laws which he was instructed to recommend or required to
sanction, or even of the death-warrants he was called officially to sign,
as might have been found (if not even less than might have been
found) in the commonest observer of the same transactions who de-
rived his information of them only from the journals of the day. His
memory, which we should have thought must have been stamped witli
indelible impressions of the occurrences of that eventful and spirit-
stirring crisis, exhibits a smooth and unruffled surface, an almost ab-
solute blank : and he reminds us much more forcibly of a sultan im-
mured within the walls of his haram than of a high British functionary
appointed by his sovereign to watch over the lives and the liberty, the
well-being and the improvement, of nearly half a million of his fellow-
subjects. This is indeed a melancholy exhibition ! We pretend not
to say where the blame rests ; but we trust that the days have now

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Duke of Manchester. 4:11

vanished for ever which can be darkened and disgraced by so painful
and mortifying a spectacle ; and when the powers, whether of good or
evil, possessed by the British Government over the destinies of distant
provinces, are delegated to hands so little fitted to wield them.

Mr. Burge, if we understand him correctly, has taken to himself
the credit (p. 967) of having marshalled the array of the pro-slavery
host for the late conflict. If so, he has certainly not shown himself
an able tactician. His choice of the Duke of Manchester to lead the
van of his battle in the House of Lords, and of Captain Williams to
head that in the House of Commons, reflects no lustre on his dis-
cernment. It exhibits rather something of that infatuation which we
have been apt to impute to the West Indian body, but from which we
were fully disposed beforehand to exempt that learned gentleman.

The Duke of Manchester's testimony may be thus summed up : —
The treatment of the slaves was excellent ; their food and clothing
abundant (though he cannot specify quantities) ; and their dwellings
remarkably good in general. They all had land to cultivate for them-
selves, and the markets of the island were supplied from the excess of
their produce with provisions, pigs, and poultry ; and their property
was secure. Such was their state as much when the Duke first
landed in Jamaica as when he quitted it. The slaves might now be
more enlightened, but, in other respects, not a bit better off" than they
were twenty years ago (p. 3, 4). He did not recollect any legislative
enactments tending to improvement in his time, though there may
have been one or two since he came away ; but complaints of slaves
were much more attended to. There was no feeling of private inse-
curity while he remained, except during the latter years of his stay,
when two or three partial insurrectionary movements occurred (p. 5).
The only idea, he conceived, the slaves had of emancipation was the
having nothing to do . Thirty days' labour in the year, or as he afterwards
says (p. 381), on the authority of Bryan Edwards, twenty, was enough
to supply their wants, and they would, therefore, have no motive to
labour beyond this. As to confidence in their masters, the slaves could
feel little of it, as there are hardly any of their masters there. They
did not knoAv their masters generally. He believed the slaves possessing
property were superior persons, but he did not know what distinctions
there were among them, and could not specify instances (p. 6). He
did not recollect what had passed in the Jamaica Assembly as to their
refusal to appoint protectors, or as to the admission of slave evidence,
except that it was admitted against their fellow-slaves, though not
.against white or free persons ; or as to compulsory manumission ; or
as to marriage. Sunday markets were not abolished in his time; but
he believed, though of that he was not certain, that the slaves had
Saturday as well as Sunday, or at least every other Saturday, except
during crop. He was not aware of any law giving the slaves a legal
right of property ; nor of any attempt to substitute the cat for the
cart-whip, or to prevent indecency in the flogging of females ; nor
could he tell whether the slaves, though liable, as he conoeived, to be
punished by magistrates, were also liable to be punished by councils

478 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

of protection, for unfounded complaints (p. 7, 8). He recollected an
attack on the house of aWesleyan missionary at Christmas, 1826; but
he had not succeeded in discovering its authors, nor did he know
that it was perpetrated by white militia-men, or that it was excited by
an inflammatory sermon of the Rev. Mr. Bridges, which sermon he
had nevertheless read, and did not consider as inflammatory at all*
(p. 9).

His Grace was further questioned as to certain trials and executions
of slaves which had taken place under his sanction, in 1823 and 1824,
in the parishes of St. Mary, St. George, St. James, and Hanover, but
he was wholly unable to speak clearly as to the circumstances of any
of them. He did not even know, though he admitted they were con-
demned as rebels, that they v/ere taken in arms. " I will not be cer-
tain about arms ; but they were taken in the act of rebellion cer-
tainly," but what act he could not tell. He had looked at all the evi-
dence laid before him, but had called for no further evidence. He could
not recollect v/hether the whole of it was not hearsay. He did not believe
that any witness for the prosecution had been cross-examined. "How,
indeed," he aptly asks in reply, " could it have been?" for the accused
were "certainly not defended by counsel." He had never heard that
a promise of freedom was held out to the witnesses for the prosecu-
tion ; or that a father named Stirling had been convicted and
executed on the unsworn evidence of his own son, a lad of thirteen ;
or that a husband had been found guilty and hanged on the evidence
of his wife t (p. 10, 11).

The Duke is questioned as to the fact of the indemnity made to the
master for the slaves who may be executed. He admits that in such
cases " the owner is allowed a sum of money," but, he believes,
" generally much below tlae value. It used to be about £40. That

* We also have read the sermon, and we cannot but marvel at his Grace's
judgment of it. Its tendency, if not its aim, was to excite the white militia to
rise from their Christmas revels to assail the Methodists. His Grace's apology
for the transaction is that it was a drunken outrage.

f And yet such were the facts of the case, as exhibited on the very face of the
evidence which was submitted to the Duke of Manchester, and on which he
authorized the execution of eight of the king's subjects in one day ; and which
he himself transmitted to Lord Bathurst ; and which Lord Bathurst laid before the
House of Commons, and by whose order they were printed, on the 1st March, 1825,
No. 66. — For a full account of the many foul judicial murders which occurred in
Jamaica during the years 1823 and 1824, and of which his Grace's recollections
are so feeble and imperfect, the reader may refer to this important parliamentary
document, and to an abstract of it contained in a pamphlet published by Hat-
chard, and to be had at the Anti-Slavery Office, entitled " The Slave Colonies of
Great Britain, or a Picture of Negro Slavery, by the Colonists themselves"
(p. 35 — 63) ; and also to the speech of the present Lord Chief Justice, then Mr.
Denman, delivered in the House of Commons on the 2nd of March, 1826, when
he moved a resolution reprobating, in the strongest terms of sorrow and indigna-
tion, the perversion of law and the violation of justice displayed in these trials and
executions. See the parliamentary debates of that day, and the Anti-Slavery
Reporter, vol. I, No. 10, p. 113, &c.

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Duke of Manchester. 479

is allowed by law"* (p. 11). On a subsequent examination which his
Grace underwent respecting these trials (see p. 386), he aims at
salving all defects and justifying the warrant to execute eight of the
king's subjects, by stating that he could not recollect the evidence on
which he had concluded they were guilty, and besides no Governor,
he conceives, could get any thing by sifting a Negro's evidence. " It
must be done by persons who understood their language and habits,
and are used to their tricks ;" implying, it would seem, that he felt
himself wholly incompetent to the task of re-examining the evidence ;
and he further, by way of making his apology complete, says, " I
KNOW that the persons executed all confessed." Mr. Burge, he thinks,
was Attorney -General at the time.f

* The Duke is so far right, in saying that this most iniquitous practice is sanc-
tioned by law in Jamaica ; but he is quite mistaken in supposing that the in-
demnity is limited to £40. On the contrary, in the case of the eight executions
which he himself authorized in St. Mary's, the indemnities were as follows, viz. —
Henry Nibbs (the man convicted by his wife), £50; Charles Brown, £lOO;
James Stirling (the man executed on the evidence of his son), £65 ; Charles
"Watson, £80 ; Rodney Wellington,"£70 ; William Montgomery, £lOO; Richard
Cosley, £100 ; Morris Henry, £90. All these poor creatures, except the
first, belonged to an estate called Frontier, the property of Archibald Stirling, Esq.,
a Scotch gentleman, who stands high in reputation in Scotland as a religious
character, but who seems to have pocketed £605 as the price of the blood of these
seven innocent and murdered men. These valuations stand recorded in the
Jamaica Royal Gazette, of the 28th December, 1823, which states that the crimes
for which they were " all found guilty on the clearest evidence, and sentenced to
be hanged," were " rebellious conspiracies, and other crimes, to the ruin and de-
struction of the white people and others of this island, and for causing, exciting,
and promoting others thereto ; and also for being concerned in rebellion, and
designing to commit murder, felony, burglary, and to set fire to certain houses,
and out-houses ; and compassing and imagining the death of the white people in
the said parish" — (bless their majesties !) Can all this be believed ? And yet
not one overt act of any kind was even alleged to have been committed. The
only witnesses even of a design of committing any offence was a boy of thirteen,
who charged his own father with it, and a man named Ned, who, we are ex-
pressly told, in the Royal Gazette of the 21st of December, 1823, that of the
preceding week, did not even depose to any such design on the part of any one,
until he had " received a promise of pardon, and also of his freedom," if he
would " discover the whole plot." And yet the Duke of Manchester, and Mr.
Hinchcliffe, and Sir John Keane, and Mr. Shand, and Mr. Burge himself, who
was the Attorney-General, the law adviser of his Grace at this time, cum multis
aliis, can tell us fine tales of the effective protection and security, and of the un-
rivalled felicity of men on whom such deeds may be perpetrated with impunity.
Such is the state in which Sir Charles Rowley says he would prefer to be born
to labour, rather than in that of the English peasant. See No. 104, p. 443.

f What part Mr. Burge may have taken in this matter we know not, though
he and Mr. Bullock were probably the Duke's counsellors on the occasion. Mr.
B. best knows. But certainly nothing can be more contrary to the fact than
the statement made, on the Duke's alleged knowledge, " that the persons executed
all confessed." This statement is directly contradicted by Colonel Cox, who
was present at the trial and execution of those men. In a letter to the Duke
dated the day after the execution, viz. on the 25th of December, 1823, inserted
in the papers of 1825, No. 66, p. 44, Colonel Cox says, "only one of the

480 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

His Grace thinks that the insurrectionary movements of which he
had spoken were to be traced to the Negro's desire to emancipate
himself. This he beheves was the sole cause of the disturbances in
St. James and Hanover in 1824. They certainly did not arise, he
says, from ill usage — (p. 380).*

The Duke is of opinion that attorneys and overseers are as likely
to manage well and leniently as the proprietors themselves — (p. 381).
He was again questioned about the famous Slave Law passed by him
in 1826, and disallowed by the Crown ; but he had forgot all about
it, and could reply distinctly to none of the questions — (p. 383, 384).
He was further questioned as to the attack on the Methodist Mis-
sionary at St. Ann's, after an inflammatory sermon by Mr. Bridges,
and he stated his incapacity to call to mind the circumstances of the
case, or the causes which prevented the detection and punishment of
the delinquents. He relieved himself at last by referring the whole
matter to Mr. Burge, who, he thinks, was the Attorney General at the
time, " and would be much more able to answer these questions than
I can be." " It was his (Mr. Burge's) special duty to take measures
for the discovery. He was instructed to do it" — (p. 385).

The Duke admitted that he had been intimate with Mr. Bridges,
who, he added, was "a person with whom any one would be glad to be
acquainted, as a gentleman and a man of learning" — (p. 388). He
had heard that day, for the first time, of the case of Mr. Bridges and

wretches confessed to the Rev. Mr. Gerod that it was their intention to have
burned Frontier works, and Port Maria, and killed the whites. But none would
mention any other Negroes connected with them, or show any symptoms of re-
ligion or repentance. They all declared they would die like men, and they
met their fate with perfect indifference." Even the qualified statement of Mr.
Cox is untrue. On the very scaffold, as we should be able to show, pardon was
offered to such of them as would acknowledge their guilt, and discover their
accomplices, but they, one and all, persisted in protesting their own innocence,
and positively refused to save their lives by criminating other persons of whose
guilt they had no knowledge. We are the more forward to state these circum-
stances, because not only is Mr. Burge in England, but Abraham Hodgson, Esq.,
the custos of St. Mary, who presided at the trial, and himself attended the exe-
cution of these eight wretches, is now also in this country. He is one of the
delegates sent from Jamaica along with Mr. Barrett to assist Mr. Burge in plead-
ing the cause of slavery in the present session of parliament. It is awful to con-
template the total indifference to Negro life, as well as to all the forms as well as
essentials of justice which marked the whole of the proceedings of that feverish
period.

^ Here again the Duke of Manchester is contradicted by the documents' which
he himself transmitted to this country in 1824. See the parliamentary papers
already alluded to. No. QQ of 1825, p. 118. The disturbance on Argyle estate,
in Hanover, belonging to Mr. Malcolm, was solely owing to that gentleman's
having most unwarrantably and gratuitously endeavoured to shorten the slaves'
Saturdays, by requiring them to muster in the field and work there some time
before they were dismissed to their grounds. This conduct was not only unjust,
but illegal, and it was obstinately persisted in by Mr. Malcolm, notwithstand-
ing the complaints and remonstrances of his slaves.

on Colonial Slavery, — Evidence of H. J. Hinchcliffe, Esq. 481

Kitty Hilton.* Being shown a cart-whip, he said he had seen many
such in Jamaica, though this, he thought, was somewhat larger than
those used by the drivers. He had never, however, had one in his
hand in Jamaica ; and had seen it hung over the driver's shoulder, or
coiled round his stick. He admitted that they made a shocking
noise with their whips ; and that in Jamaica every thing was done by
the whip : it was used for signals ; and, if a boy was set to drive chickens,
the first thing he did was to make a whip. Every estate has stocks
to confine Negroes (p. 388).

On estates, the Duke always found old slaves comfortably pro-
vided for, he supposed by their own famiUes. Very few slaves went to
church. The driver carried, of course, the whip to stimulate the
slaves to work ; and, if they did not work, the driver would use his
whip for that purpose — (p. 389, 390).

Such is the evidence of the Duke of Manchester, brought forward
in the front of their battle by the Colonial Committee, to establish
their pro-slavery case, and to confute the calumnies of the Abolition-
ists and of the Anti-Slavery Reporter. We greatly doubt whether the
result will satisfy them. It perfectly satisfies us. We ought, perhaps,
to apologize to our readers for giving so much space to it ; but the
rank of the witness, and the importance attached to his evidence by
the West Indians, seemed to justify this lengthened notice of it.

2. H. J. Hinchcliffe, Esq.

This lawyer, — for many years, we believe, the King's Advocate, and
latterly the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of Jamaica, — has sur-
prised us by his evidence still more than even the noble Governor of
that colony. His professional education and his legal habits were
likely to have made his information, during 17 years of uninterrupted
residence, of some value. It is nearly valueless. He knows nothing,
he tells us, but " from general observation" of the condition of the slave
population-; but that, he conceives, enables him to state that, " as
compared with the labouring population in any other country, it was
exceedingly good indeed" (p. 13). Want, as to food or clothing,
was unknown among them ; he had "no notion of any thing of the
sort;" and, as far as he knew, their treatment was good and kind.
He had not been led even to think of the subject of emancipation
before he left the island in 1818 ; and now he had no idea of a slave, if
freed, doing more than supply his own wants, and that he would not
very soon relapse into barbarism. In his time, no religious instruction
had been given to the slaves except by missionaries, and of them or of

* Mr. Bridges has certainly succeeded in gaining the friendship of suc-
cessive Governors. He was, it is asserted, no less the favoured associate of
tlie convivial hours of the Duke's successor than he was of the Duke himself.
Yet this chosen and familiar companion of his Majesty's representatives in
that great island stands marked with infamy in the judicial records of Jamaica,
and in the official communications of his Majesty's Secretary of State. He has
also been convicted of a false and malicious libel on the courts of this country.
See the Auti-Slaveiy Reporter, vol. iii., No, QQ, and vol. iv,, No. 76, p. 140,
and No. 79, p. 246.

3 R

482 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

the state of religion he knows little. Few plantation slaves were
then baptized, and he had never heard of a marriage among them. The
planters were jealous of the influence of the missionaries in getting
money from the slaves. He seemed to know absolutely nothing of
any labours of clergymen among them (p. 14 — 16). Slaves had cer-
tainly no legal right to property in his time, but he had never heard
of its being interfered with, though many of them, he believed, pos-
sessed property. The treatment of the slaves was, he also believed,
lenient ; and the leaning of jurors, on trials, in their favour : but he
could not recollect particular instances. Indeed he had never seen
a slave trial. The judges were almost all planters, and not profes-
sional men, and they acted in general without any legal assessor (p.
17—19).

Mr. Hinchcliffe underwent a second examination, but little more
was elicited from him, by means of it, except matters of mere vague
opinion and not of knowledge. He was inclined to think, upon the
whole, that the act of 1831 did give slaves a legal right of property,
but of this he was not sure. He much disapproved of a slave pro-
tector, as being discourteous to the master, and as prejudicially inter-
fering between him and the slave. On various other points he pro-
fessed himself wholly uninformed. He knew no slave that could read
(p. 322—331).

His statements were equally vague as to the industry whether of
the slaves or of the free. He inclined to think, however, that the slave
would work more diligently for himself on his own one day in the
week, while compelled to work five days for his master. The late
insurrection, he was of opinion, though he had no knowledge of the
fact, was excited by the missionaries. Of the missionaries, however,
whether white or black, he knew nothing, excepting in the case of
one man, a Baptist, whom he believed to be a very respectable, well-
behaved man. The general impression respecting them, however,
among the planters, was unfavourable (p. 332 — 336).

Mr. Hinchcliffe had witnessed punishments, but he did not think
they could be called severe, if they permitted a man to return to his
work immediately, or in a day or two afte#. The flogging both of
men and women was on the posteriors. He believed it was not
uncommon to inckle the wounds after a flogging. He did not know
how many lashes the driver might inflict of his own authority ; it
might be five or ten. The master or manager might inflict 39. He
believed that acts of cruelty would excite general indignation in
Jamaica. He had never attended a slave court in his life ; but he
believed the slave had no civil remedy. Of the means of redress, in
other cases, enjoyed by the slaves, he begged to refer to the slave
law. As to licentiousness, he seemed to admit that it was pretty
general among all classes, but not attended with the same violations
of exterjnal decency which might be witnessed in populous cities in
Europe (p. 340—344).

On the whole, the evidence of this gentleman might well have been
spared ; but it is at least harmless. If it proves any thing, it proves
this, that a man of good education and respectable acquirements may

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of J. Baillie, Esq. 483

pass not merely a few months, but 17 or 18 years in a slave colony,
and know as little of its interior as if he had passed his whole life in
travelling between Lincoln's Inn and Westminster Hall.

3. John Baillie, Esq.

We come at length to a planter, and a man of no small experience
in that capacity, for he had resided in Jamaica 27 years at a stretch,
till 1815, and had afterwards visited it twice between 1822 and 1826.
His experience, during that time, taught him that the slaves were
" happy and contented ;" sufficiently provisioned, particularly in his
own district, including Westmoreland, St. James, Trelawny, Hanover,
and St. Ann ; and that they were remarkably improved in moral and
religious feeling. The character of overseers, he said,was also improved.
The property of slaves was uniformly protected. In case of ill usage,
a slave generally obtained redress by going to a magistrate or a neigh-
bouring gentleman. He had every facility in making his complaints,
and also for religious worship. This testimony applied to the period
even before 1815. He found matters still more improved in his last
visits. Baptisms were more frequent, and that in gangs of 20, 30, or
40. The clergyman was invited, and had a dinner, with a douceur of
£25 or £30 besides. Before 1815, baptism was generally granted
on request as a boon ; marriage, too, was now much more frequent.
His own estate, Roehampton, in St. James's, has about 350 slaves.
He had 7io school upon it, but he understood that schools had in-
creased "for coloured children." Voluntary manumissions he under-
stood also to have become very frequent. He had offered to sell
ynanujnission to his own slaves, but not one had ever accepted it.
He thought all masters should be willing to do so whenever slaves
apply for it. His own Negroes, to whom he offered to sell their
freedom, had the means of paying for it. One of them, of the name of
John Baillie, who refused the offer, possessed from £600 to £800 ; but
HE tvas executed the other day as a leader in the rebellion. He was
originally a mason, and made a deal of money in that way ; but, being
a confidential person, he was made head driver, and getting lame,
though only 48 years of age, he was then made a ranger to go round
the estate, and had a mule to ride and a boy to attend him ; he had
also his. house and land, and cattle running on the estate. In the last
return of May, 1831, he stood in the list "exempt from labour," and
yet " he was one of the ringleaders in the rebellion." Mr. Baillie can-
not tell precisely what property his Negroes were possessed of. * He
had never known but one man, a brown man, who had applied to
purchase his freedom and been refused. He was a slave of Mr. Gor-
don, a gentleman who has distinguished himself in Greece (p. 22 — 25),

* The above statement is, in some of its parts, so extravagant and incredible
that we felt disappointed that it should have been followed by no cross-examina-
tion. In a later part of the enquiry, however, we find it again adverted to, but
still in a way which leaves a part of its strange inconsistencies unexplained.
The only time, Mr. Baillie observes, that he offered his slaves leave to buy their
freedom was (we presume during the Christmas revels) about Christmas, 1825.

484 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

When Mr. Baillie first went to Jamaica very little trouble was taken
to instruct slaves; mucK more has been taken latterly. Sunday is
now never made use of as a day of labour ; formerly it was. Female
slaves are not treated or punished indecently by their masters, who, he
thinks, have less power, quoad licentiousness, than is possessed over
maid-servants in England. Slaves are certainly not often subjected
to barbarity in punishment, and the means of redress are always easily
to be had. Complaints, whether trivial or serious, are never smothered.
The slave law prohibits the separation of families. No difficulty
attends slave evidence, in the case of acts of cruelty. Slaves, once
made free, are never reduced to slavery again. No labouring popula-
tion, certainly, can be better fed ; and no slave is compelled to do
half the work of an English labourer. It is clearly the master's in-
terest to feed and clothe his slaves well. Slaves are proud of wearing
shoes,butthey throw them off when not waiting at table. The planter has
to support the old and young, and all incapable of labour. Free labour
is to be preferred to slave labour, if it can be obtained. A slave's dwell-
ing is sacred from the master. The intrusion of a protector, therefore,

They refused it, but gave no reason for their refusal. They "laughed in his
face," and an old African man, the same identical John BaiUie, the ranger men-
tioned above, speaking for the rest, said, " Massa, me know better, massa, than
take freedom." " I never offered it," Mr. Baillie adds, "but on that occasion."
"The whole gang were up, and I called three or four of them, and, ma laughing
way, said, ' You have heard talk a great deal about freedom. If any of you
want to be free, I am willing to give it to you. John, what do you think of it V
It was done in a jocular way, but perfectly in earnest, if they would avail them-
selves of it." This offer to sell them their freedom, he adds, was general, and,
though the ranger alone answered, yet any one might have dissented from him.
In speaking of the property of his slaves, however, on a former day, he had
referred to this one man, his slaves generally " certainly not'- having sufficient
property to purchase their freedom. This man, he knew, did possess property,
and the ground of his knowledge he thus states: ' He had cattle running upon
the estate (two cows and their calves) ; he had also a flock of goats, and he had
also hogs and poultry ; and, when the conversation took place as to his freedom,
his daughter stated to him, "Massa, he can buy us free very well if he choose ;
he have plenty of money.' " Being asked how he knew that this ranger, who
was executed for rebellion, possessed the sum of £600 or £800, which he had
represented him to possess, and also how it was invested, he said he had no
other means of knowing the fact than he had already stated, and that the pro-
perty was in " money, or in stock, as cattle, pigs, and so on ;" and if in money, it
was " perhaps hid away." He could not tell what had become of this property
since the ranger's execution, but he hoped to ascertain it on his return to Jamaica,
which was about to take place. Being further asked what he conceived had
been the man's object in revolting, he replied, " It is totally impossible for me
to conjecture; I had such confidence in him that if my family had been there,
even my daughters, 1 should have implicitly placed them in his charge and
thought them perfecdy safe."

Now what can be said to all this ? It must either be the wildest fable ever
fabricated, a mere romance, or this poor man must have suffered from his over-
seer some very harsh and unworthy treatment of which his master knew nothing.
The sound of a cart-whipping, and the groans it may have drawn from him, of
course could not reach the ears of his master across the Atlantic, and to what
^dignities besides he or his daughter may have been subjected who can tell?

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of J. Baillie, Esq. 485

would be offensive to him. Mr. Baillie objects strongly to a protector,
as unnecessary and injurious, and as likely to generate discontents.
The Negro houses are very comfortable, but he himself did not often
enter them. He has gone into the house of his ranger, and had wine
offered him there. His slaves had no day given them for their grounds in
crop time, but he sometimes gave four or five additional days after crop.
He admitted, however, that it would be an advantage to the slaves, at
all seasons, to have time for cultivating their grounds. The only slave
on his estate who had cattle was his ranger : he had two cows, and
some calves. The slaves do not eat much animal food, and what they
do eat they like to eat in a putrid state * (p. 29 — 39).

Then follow, in this and other parts of Mr. Baillie's evidence, ques-
tions about the name and use of the cart- whip or driving whip, as if
it were of the slightest importance what name it bears, or what is its
precise form or size, so long as it serves to lacerate the bared limbs of
human beings, men and women ; prickly rods being employed to
aggravate its lacerations, and brine or lime-juice to add to its torture.
Mr. Baillie, however, stands pre-eminent among pro-slavery witnesses
for the unflinching boldness of his assertions respecting the non-use
of the whip. Many years ago, this practical planter of thirty years'
standing had seen such a thing as a cart-whip ; but, if used at all, it
must have been before the abolition of the slave trade. No such thing has
been known since; nay its inflictions have been wholly discontinued
since 1 795 ! He has not known it since that time, either on his own es-
tate or on any of the estates in the surrounding district for twenty miles.
The whip is carried into the field certainly ; but not as an instrument
of punishment, only as an emblem of authority. Then, he says, the
laws of Jamaica prohibit the use of the whip in inflicting punishments
without ample time being allowed after the offence has been com-
mitted ; whereas it is well known there is no such law in Jamaica.
In short, the whole of his evidence is of so random and rambling a
nature, that we feel some difficulty in believing that the witness could
understand the meaning of the words he uttered. At the very moment
he is saying that the use of the whip has been discontinued since 1795,
he limits the number of the lashes that may be given by the driver in
the field to six. Again, he denies, in the strongest terms, the use of

* It would be endless to expose all the strange unmeaning statements and mis-
representations contained in the above abstract of ten pages of Mr. Baillie's
evidence ; contradicted too as much of it is by other pro-slavery witnesses ; — sucli
as Sunday is never used as a day of labour — women are not indecently
flogged, and are not exposed to licentious outrage — there are no barbarous
punishments — the slaves have easy means of redress — there is no separation
of families, &c. Even when he speaks the truth he strangely disfigures it. The
slaves do not eat much animal food in Jamaica. That is true. Many of them
eat none at all. But then he would imply, because they eat it putrid, tliat they
prefer it in that state. The fact is, they are driven by necessity to eat it putrid,
for they can get little else. The Negroes in Cuba, Caraccas, and Hayti eat good
beef daily. Why do they not in Jamaica ? Simply because they cannot get it.
Ill Ilayti, beef is twopence a pound — in Jamaica, a shilling ; and, if the slaves
used it, it would be double that price in a week.

486 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

the whip to compel field labour ; yet, when he is asked, in a subse-
quent part of his examination, whether there is a hope as to the fitness
of the slaves for emancipation, he replies, "I conceive not ; for the
nature of the Negro is such that, unless he is compelled, he will not
work." He does not even think it possible that, in any number of years
to come, the slave would be prepared to labour as labour is conducted
in other parts of the world ; and, if free, he would be unable to take
care of his family. Slaves made free, he maintains, become mere
nuisances, and are no assistance to any one — (p. 41 — 45 and 60,61).
Emancipation would be the ruin of the slaves — (p. 115).

What possible use can be made, even so as to form an intelligible
abstract, of such wild and contradictory statements ?

It will be wholly unnecessary to follow Mr. Baillie in his details
(p. 45 — 60) of the various employments of his slaves by day and by
night, and which occupy many pages that tend to nothing and con-
vey no useful information whatever. In the course of his evidence he
takes occasion to allude to his anxiety for the religious instruction of
his slaves, and to his having even meditated building a chapel for them
on his estate ; but his attorney told him it would be throwing away
money to do so. He therefore abandoned the plan. His favourite
ranger seems to have been little inclined to attend to religion : he
preferred having three wives to paying it any attention — (p. 51, 52).
The only conversation he states himself to have had with his slaves
about marriage was to ridicule it (p. 157).

" Sunday," says Mr. Baillie, " has become a day of rest by law;"
and this he affirms in the teeth of the very last slave act, which legalizes
Sunday markets till eleven o'clock. Again, " The slaves never have
been compelled to cultivate their grounds on Sundays" (p. 55). — And
yet they never had any other day allowed them by law but Sunday,
until the very year, 1788, that Mr. Baillie first visited the island.

The endless enquiries and remarks about shoes, and beards, and
razors, are only laughable. The object seems to have been to prove
that the Negro's foot was .not made to wear shoes, although it is
admitted they wear them if they can on gala days, and while waiting
at table, and that they may protect the feet from many an injury ;
and also to prove that the Negroes, having no beards, do not want
razors, though no man can take the trouble to inspect a Negro's face
without seeing that the beard, which even Mr. Baillie admits is con-
spicuous in the aged from its whiteness, is only obscured in the young
by the common blackness of the hair and skin.

We may also omit the details about spell-keeping, and hospitals, and
ploughing, and holeing, summing up the whole in a brief sentence : —
That, generally speaking, the slaves have, in crop-time, not more than
six hours' rest in the twenty four ; that hospitals are sometimes coveted
by the slaves as a respite from severe toil ; and that the hands of men
and women are too generally employed in digging the ground, where
ploughs and cattle would do the same work much more effectually,
and to the obvious saving of human health and life. These are all
points we need not touch upon or attempt to prove.

It were still more vain to follow Mr. Baillie in his loose, undigested,
and wholly unauthenticated statements respecting the increase and

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of J. Baillie, Esq. 487

decrease of the slave population. He specifies, however, certain estates,
in the management of which he himself was still concerned, and from
which he had received recent returns of the population, which he affirmed
to be increasing on all of them. But on inspecting the authentic ac-
counts of the population of those particular estates in the year 1827,
as compared with the year 1831, as they stand in the sworn returns of
the overseers to the different parish vestries, it is evident that Mr. Baillie
must have been misinformed on the subject. We find only two of the
six estates he mentions to have increased in fiiat time — namely, the
estate of Home Castle in St. Ann, belonging to the late Mr. R. Hume
Gordon, and Georgia in Trelawney, belonging to Mr. Thomas Gordon.
On the former there were, in 1827, 318, and, in 1831, 339 ; so that,
supposing there was no addition by purchase or removal, the increase
by birth would be 21, or nearly two percent, per annum. On Georgia
the number, in 1827, was 255, and, in 1831, 258. The population of
the remaining four estates was as follows, viz. — Blackness, in West-
moreland (the late Mr. Grant's), in 1827, 258; in 1831,254; the
decrease in the six previous years having been 33. Gibraltar, in Tre-
lawney (Mr. Campbell's), in 1827, 163 : in 1831, 157. Steelfield, in
Trelawney, in 1827, 213; in 1831, 211; the decrease of the six pre-
vious years having been 26, and of the whole ten years 28. Orange
Bay, in Hanover, in 1827, 281 ; and in 1831, 264 ; the decrease of
the preceding six years having been 28, and of the whole ten years 45.

Mr. Baillie blunders sadly about the law of slave evidence. In one
place he says (p. 122) that he never knew it rejected. The only law
on that subject, however, the law of 1831, may be seen in the last
number of our Reporter, No. 104, p. 446. He is certain, too, that a
Negro cannot now be punished with 39 stripes, by his master or mana-
ger, for merely being absent from his work (p. 76, 77). There exists,
however, no law imposing any such restraint on the master's power.
Indeed, Mr. Baillie himself afterwards admits this (p. 120).

Being asked respecting the licentious intercourse between the sexes
said to be prevalent in Jamaica-, he replied that he did not consider
that there was any licentious intercourse between them. It was true
white people had all black or coloured mistresses living with them on
the footing of man and wife in this country ; but he had never seen
any violation of decency. He could not name one friend, or any
overseer or other person, who did not indulge in this practice. He
had never known any missionaries who did so, nor any clergyman ; but,
if he were told they did, he would believe it (p. 108, 109). He could
say nothing of schools : he had never visited any. Estates, he con-
ceived, had nothing to do with schools. He had never put a slave to
school, and never knew one who could read. He believed Mr. Charles
Nicholas Pallmer had established a school on his estates* (p. 1 1 1, 1 12).

Mr. Baillie did not know what allowance of food the law required
to be given to a slave when he had no provision grounds of his own.
The law of humanity was the only law he knew on that point. He

The attempt failed. See No. 104, p. 346.

488 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

never knew a penalty enforced for an insufficient supply of sustenance
to a slave (p. 125, 126).

In a later period of his examination, the driving whip was again the
subject of enquiry ; and he then contradicted much of what he had
said before. He denied, indeed, vehemently, the use at all of the
cart- whip in the field. It was quite another sort of whip which was
carried there ; and even that was used, not for punishment, but show.
It was generally discontinued — ^hot, as he said at first, in 1795, but,
he believed, in 1815, He even admitted that the driver is not now
prevented from using it in the field by any law. On the contrary, he
said that, during the twenty-seven years he had been a planter, men
and women did labour under the direction of a driver with a whip in
his hand (p. 128).

Mr. Baillie had testified that the slave was not compelled to do half
so much work as the English labourer did. Being re-examined on
this point he acknowledged he knew absolutely nothing of English
labour (p. 129, 130).

The question of the duration of night-work was again resumed (p.
130 — 137), and with the same confusion as we have noticed in every
other pro-slavery witness. We again refer our readers on that subject
to the notes in our last number (104), p. 337, and 417 and 418.

The time required by the Negro to cultivate provisions for himself
and family wo witness could state very precisely. One witness, Mr.
Shand, did not scruple to say that one day, in some instances, or a
week in others, was quite sufficient. The Duke of Manchester and
others raised the number to thirty or perhaps twenty. Mr. Baillie
seemed to think that the 26 allowed by law might be enough ; but
he always himself gave them four or five or six days more after
crop, besides their holidays ; and the Sundays, he adds, they may oc-
cupy as they please. He had denied, indeed, that they were under
any necessity of working on the Sunday, and he never knew them
compelled to do so. At length, however, on the eighth day of his
examination, he went so far as to admit that " they do cultivate their
grounds on Sundays, though he did not himself call them to do it"
(p. 148, 149).

Mr. Baillie was very anxious to the last to testify that the Negroes
did not work by coercion, and that they would on no account work for
wages if free ; but yet, after all, nothing but the fear of punishment
really obtained from them the labour which was obtained, just as in
the case, he said, of soldiers and sailors. But the Negroes differed
from all other people, he added, in being more lazy. No man who
was made free ever returned to work in the field (p. 151 — 154).

He was against all interference of every kind between master and
slave, whether by Protectors, or by Orders in Council, or by suggestions
of Secretaries of State. If the West Indians had been left to themselves,
he thought, improvement would have gone on much more rapidly ; it
had been much retarded by the conduct of the Government and people
of this country (p. 162).

Such, in substance, is the evidence, the confused and contradictory
evidence, of this great and experienced planter, put forward with no

on Colonial Slavery .^—Evidence of Lord Seaford. 489

small promise and examined at much length. It forms altogether so
strange a jumble of inconsistencies, and is so much at variance with
truth, and even with probability, that we should have concluded that
he had laboured, while delivering it, under some unfortunate aberra-
tion of mind. This would have been our unavoidable conclusion,
even if we had heard nothing of the fatal act which soon after closed
his earthly course, and which seemed to confirm all our preconcep-
tions on the subject. We can only wonder that so acute a man as
Mr. Burge, and one so well acquainted with colonial matters, should
have rested the mighty interests of which he is avowedly the advocate,
as he is the agent, on the testimony of one so little fitted to serve the
cause he was brought forward to support. But, though he has since
been removed to another tribunal, his evidence still stands forth, in all
its native force, to condemn the system in which he was nurtured, and
to which, for so many years, he zealously and perseveringly clung.

4. The Lord Seaford.

Lord Seaford presented to the Committee a report made to him by
his attorney in Jamaica, on the 1st of August, 1825, of the condition
of his three estates in St. James's, in respect to the grounds, and
the quantity of stock of various kinds, possessed by his slaves. The
recapitulation is as follows : —

The slaves on the three estates amounted to 864, and they possessed
among them about 52 acres of garden grounds, and about 590 acres of
provision grounds, in all 642 acres, being nearly in the proportion of
three-fourths of an acre to each individual. They were also found to
possess 131 cows, 26 oxen, 53 heifers, and 81 calves, making 291
head of horned stock, together with 522 hogs, and 1728 head of
poultry. Besides the provision and garden grounds, the stock be-
longing to the slaves ran in the pastures of the estate free of charge.
The young oxen, when fit for the yoke, were bought for the use of the
estate at £10 a piece. They ran with the estate's cattle, and were taken
care of exactly in the same way. The stock, his Lordship states, is
bona fide the property of the Negroes. His manager has proposed to
deprive them of this indulgence, but added that it would be necessary
to purchase it of them, as, by the new slave act, they had acquired a
legal property in all that stock. The proposal was made in a letter
which his Lordship had received only the day before, and was suggested
as a punishment for the misconduct of the slaves in the late rebellion.
Being asked whether he assented to this proposal, he said no. There
had been, however, as yet no time for signifying either his assent or
dissent.

A question then arises respecting the law of 1831, which has affected
to give to the slaves a legal right of property ; and Lord Seaford seems
to be of opinion that the law is so framed as to confer that right upon
them. This point being important, and believing Lord Seaford as well
as his manager to be wrong in the interpretation of that clause, we
shall deem it necessary to give the law at length. It is the 14th clause
of the Act of 19th February, 1831, and is as follows; —

3s

490 Report of Lite Commiltcc of the House of Lords

" And whereas, by the usage of this island, slaves have always been per-
mitted to possess personal property, and it is expedient that such laudable custom
should be established by law : Be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforesaid,
that if any owner, possessor, or any other free person whatsoever, shall wilfully
and unlawfully take away from any slave or slaves, or in any way deprive, or
cause any slave or slaves to be deprived of, any species of personal property, by
him, her, or them lawfully possessed, such person or persons shall forfeit and pay
to such slaves the value' of such property so taken away as aforesaid, the same
to be recovered under the hands and seals of any three justices of the peace be-
fore whom the complaint shall be laid and the facts proved, which three justices
of the peace shall have the power of summoning witnesses, who shall be bound
to attend and give their testimony, under the penalty of five pounds : provided,
nevertheless, that nothing in this act shall be construed or deemed to authorize
any trespass, or to allow any slave or slaves to turn loose, or keep, on his owner's
or other person's property, any horses, mares, mules, asses, cattle, sheep, hogs,
or goats, without the consent of his owner, or person in possession of such lands,
being first had and obtained : provided always, and be it further enacted, that the
said justices shall not have power to investigate any proceeding under the pre-
ceding clause unless the complaint be brought before them within twenty days
of the alleged committal of the injury : and provided that such justices shall not
take cognizance of any claims made by slaves for property above twenty-five
pounds value, but all claims for sums above that amount shall and may be re-
covered by the owner in the courts of this island, on behalf and for the use of
such slave : but provided always that nothing herein contained shall be deemed
to authorize the institution of any suit at law or in equity for the recovery of any
such claim by any slave in his own name, or otherwise than in the name of his
said owner.''

Now, instead of admitting- that this law gives to the slaves any
really available right of property, and especially as against his master,
we pronounce it to be a deliberate mockery, a studied evasion of the
very right it affects to confer. To say nothing of the provisos, which
are framed so as to defeat all hope of redress in the case most im-
portant to the slaves, that of spoliation by their master or his delegate,
let us look at this boasted clause, as it stands, independent of these.
Its purposed evasion will be more manifest if it be contrasted with the
clause in the Trinidad Order in Council, which Lord Bathurst pro-
posed to adopt, and which Mr. Burge, then Attorney-General of Ja-
maica, embodied into a Bill which was prepared by him in September,
1826, and afterwards brought into the House of Assembly, but rejected
by that body, who substituted the above worthless and evasive clause
in its stead : —

" Whereas, by the usage of Jamaica, persons in a state of slavery have hitherto
been permitted to acquire and enjoy property, free from the control of their
owners, and it is expedient that such laudable custom should be recognized and
established by law, therefore be it enacted that no person in the island of Ja-
maica, being in a state of slavery, shall on account of his condition be, or be
deemed to be, incompetent to purchase, acquire, possess, hold, alienate, and dis-
pose of lands situate in Jamaica, or money, cattle, implements, or utensils of
husbandry, or household furniture, or other effects of such or the like nature, of
what value and amount soever, and to bring, maintain, prosecute, and defend
any suit or action in any court of justice, for or in respect of any such property,
as fully and amply to all intents and purposes as if he or she were of free con-
dition."—Papers by His Majesty's Command, Part I. 1827, p. 15.

071 Colonial Slavery. — Evideiice of Lord Seckford. 491

Mr, Burge's version of this clause, adapting it peculiarly to the
circumstances of Jamaica, but entirely preserving the spirit of the
Trinidad enactment, may be found in the same volume, p. 48. It re-
quires a simple inspection of the two clauses to place, in full light, the
intended frustration by the one clause of all the benefits conferred
by the other. No one can peruse it without being led to admire
the dexterity with vphich, in the actual law^ of Jamaica, the crime of
robbing a slave is taken out of the class of crimes, and made a mere
civil injury; and as, even in the new evidence law of Jamaica, slave evi-
dence is not admissible, under any circumstances, in civil cases, though
it be in some criminal cases, it will follow that the evidence of slaves
will be entirely shut out from admission in all suits respecting their
property. It seems to us that there must have been something almost
Satanic in the mind of the man, whoever he was, who could combine
such a preamble, and such a professed purpose, with such an enact-
ment, holding forth some promise indeed to the ear, but entirely break-
ing it to the sense. The whole forms as gross a deception as has ever
been practised.

These remarks were especially applicable to the disallowed law of
1826. That of 1831, as Lord Goderich justly observes in his despatch
to Lord Belmore, dated 16th June, 1831, " is altered considerably to
the slave's disadvantage ; and when the owner himself is the wrong-
doer the slave is left without any remedy." The new law, too, instead
of imposing, as the Act of 1826 did, a fine of £10, limits the sum to
be. paid by the trespasser to the precise value of the property stolen or
plundered ; and expressly takes from the slave, and vests exclusively
in his owner, all right, whether in law or equity, to sue for the reco-
very of his stolen or plundered property. And this is called legal
protection to property ! ! Lord Seaford and his manager may be quite
at their ease as to any danger to them from this clause. It is perfectly
harmless as respects them, do what they may. At the same time we
are very far from supposing that Lord Seaford would require any law
but that of his own sense of right to guide his conduct in such a case.
All this, however, may show what incorrect views, not merely the
public at large, but even well-informed men like Lord Seaford, are
apt to take, being gulled by mere words. Reading in the margin of
the Jamaica' Act these deceptive words, " Property of slaves pro-
tected," they take it for granted that the Act and the margin corre-
spond ; whereas they are in direct variance. The intelligent mind of
Lord Seaford, if he had read the law with any care, could not have
overlooked its futile and vitterly evasive nature.*

But there is another part of Lord Seaford's evidence to which we
must object still more pointedly, as at war with fact. — " I cannot pre-

* It ought not to be forgotten tliat, in a parliamentary paper printed on the
■ 28th March, 1831, No. 301, Mr. Burge joined the other West India agents in
imposing on Parliament and the public the version of the above clause in the act
of 1826, respecting property, with the real nature of which Mr. Burge especially
had been so conversant, as a complete protection of slave property. " It secures,"
ihey say, " to slaves the possession of personal property." Can any assertion be
less true ?

492 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

sume," says his Lordship, " to say from what reasons the Assembly of
Jamaica, having refused at one time to make an enactment, should at
a subsequent period have thought fit to make it. They refused to
admit the evidence of slaves by an overwhelming majority, only two
members voting for it : two years afterwards an Act was passed ad-
mitting the evidence of slaves without any restriction" (p. 99).
Can Lord Seaford possibly have used these words, speaking upon his
solemn oath ? We think there must be some mistake in the report.
This law, which Lord Seaford affirms to admit the evidence of slaves
without any restriction, will be found in our last number (No. 104),
at p. 446. Even if Lord Seaford had not thought it necessary to look
at the law before he deposed to this effect, he could hardly have
wholly forgotten the comments upon it of his deceased friend, Mr. Hus-
kisson. He might have learnt from him, as well as from the words of
the act itself, that, instead of admitting, it absolutely excluded the evi-
dence of slaves in all civil cases, which is to exclude it in a very vast
majority of the cases in which slaves can have an interest, and ad-
mitted it not in the multitudinous cases of wrong connected with the
ordinary and daily course of plantation discipline, but "in those cases
of crime only in which they (i. e. slaves) are usually either the actors
or the sufferers, excluding their evidence in other cases; a distinction
which," adds Mr. Huskisson, " does not seem to me to rest on any
solid foundation."

Nor is this all. Two slaves, examined apart, if there be no free
witnesses, must depose consistently to the same fact, before any free
person can be convicted ; so that the rape of a slave may altogether
escape punishment. Again, no slave testimony will avail against a
free person after twelve months from the commission of his crime,
however atrocious it may be. Nay, however a man may have been
maimed or mutilated, the very exhibition of his bleeding body in court
would be a bar to that court to grant him his liberty ; and his muti-
lator, though convicted, cannot be bereft of a master's absolute
dominion over him. This is a most barbarous enactment, breathing
the very spirit of cruelty and distrust ; and yet Lord Seaford says of
it, on his oath, that it admits " the evidence of slaves without

ANY restriction."

Before Lord Seaford was called to give his evidence, as it has now
been analysed, an important paper was laid on the table of the Com-
mittee, by Richard Garrett Amyot, Esq., first clerk in the Slave Re-
gister Office, containing a view of the births and deaths of Africans
and Creoles on Lord Seaford's three estates in St. James's, between
the years 1817 and 1829. We will state the gross results: —

The number of slaves on these three estates, by the registry of 1817,
was 450 males and 527 females, in all 977 slaves ; exhibiting a state
of population, in regard to the sexes, highly favourable to its increase,
the females being about a sixth more than the males.

The number on these estates, in 1829, is not given in this statement,
which is a great defect, and serves very much to puzzle it ; but, as far
as we are able to make it out, the excess of deaths over births, in the
intervening time, was 101, which would make the population of 1829

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of Lord Seaford. 493

876, the males being 404 and tlie females 472 ; an equally favourable
state of the population as was exhibited in 1817.

The decrease, nevertheless, even thus shown, amounts to nearly one
per cent, per annum. But this is clearly below the truth, as Lord
Seaford's manager states the slaves at only 864 in 1825; and in 1830
his returns to the vestries of Hanover and St. James were only 846.

We are aware of the argument which it is intended to build on the
distribution which is made, in this statement, of the deaths, into
Africans and Creoles, and also on the distribution of the births between
African and Creole mothers ; but we reserve this point, to which we
shall have a sufficient answer hereafter, until we execute our pro-
mised purpose, of taking a complete and comprehensive view of the
whole question of population, as it has been argued both in this Com-
mittee and in that of the House of Commons. Meanwhile we shall
limit ourselves to the single remark, that until Lord Seaford shall be
able to show how it happens that the slave population of the United
States should have increased so rapidly as it has done, namely, at the
rate of 2^ per cent, per annum, since the date of the abolition of the
American slave trade in 1808 ; and that his Lordship's slaves, dating
from the same period of the abolition of the British slave trade, should
have decreased at the rate of 1 per cent., we shall deem this boasted
argument of no value whatever. Supposing the population of
his Lordship's estates, in 1808, to have been 1050, at the American
rate of progress it would have amounted, in the year 1829, to 1600 ;
instead of being, as it actually was in that year, only 876 ; leaving a
positive waste of human life, on these three estates, in 21 years, as
compared with America, of 724. No one will venture to say that this
is not a murderous difference, which no special pleading about Afri-
. cans and Creoles can deliver from its guilty stain.

In one point of view we cannot regret that the course of the exa-
mination should have forced us to individualize on this occasion, pain-
ful as it must be to his Lordship's feelings, and unquestionably so as
it is to our own. But where could we have found an example of a
slave-holder more entitled to the praise of humane and liberal conduct
towards his slaves than this nobleman ? But such is the system which
he has unhappily had to administer, that its inherent wickedness has
set his Lordship's best wishes and efforts at defiance, and has triumphed
over them all. On his beautiful estates, where all nature seems to
smile, and both all vegetable life and all other animal life are seen
luxuriating in the exuberance of their productions,

" Man only is the growth which dwindles here."

We have indeed heard the case of Lord Seaford, and his severe
losses by the late insurrection, cited, not only with the commiseration
for his share in that calamity which we participate with all who have
access to know his urbanity and other estimable qualities, but as a
proof of the innate obduracy and ingratitude of the Negro character,
which no kindness can soften, and no obligations can bind. Here,
however, we must wholly dissent. His slaves, we do not hesitate to
say, owe Lord Seaford nothing. Even the kindness he may have
meant them, if not intercepted in its distant progress, has reached

494 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

them only thiough liearts and hands known to them, not by any inter-
change of affection, but by the stern exaction of their unintermitted
toil. While they have been surrounding him with every enjoyment
which wealth can purchase, theij have been wearing out their lives, by
night as well as by day, in bitter bondage, under the frown or the lash
of unfeeling task-masters. Compared with those under whom they
plied their unremitting labours, what was Lord Seaford to them ? Their
happiness and their destinies, from day to day and from hour to hour,
were not in his power, but in that of his overseers ; and while health
and life were wasting, as we have seen, apace, it is but the dream of
a driveller to suppose that there existed any principle which could
enable them to avert their minds from the scenes around them, and
fasten them on the kindly feeling towards them which might dwell in
his Lordship's bosom amid the festivities and splendours of his lordly
mansion at Seaford or in Audley Square.

5, MAJOIl-GE^^ERAL Siii JoHX Keane, K. C. B.

This gallant officer passed eight years in Jamaica, in the interesting
period from 1823 to 1830, as Commander-in-chief of the forces ; and,
during a year and a half of the time, he administered the civil govern-
ment also. He conceived himself to have had abundant opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the condition of the slaves, having moved
about a good deal in the island, and visited many estates. We ques-
tion, however, whether he could have been a very accurate observer of
what was passing around him during those years. For example, — he
says, speaking of the Negro, that he has always observed it to be
" very much contrary to the nature of that animal to tell the truth."
He thus illustrates this opinion : — " Since the enactment of slave evi-
dence being admitted, it is quite extraordinary to see the proof given
in courts. They will tell a thing ofF-hand, and you suppose they had
it perfectly ; and on their cross-examination they will forget what they
have said, and will tell a story diametrically opposite to what they
have before told" (p. 167). Now this is certainly a very ofF-hand
statement of Sir John's, considering that he is on oath. Sir John Keane
himself tells us that he quitted Jamaica in 1830. But the act which
admitted a slave to give any evidence at all against free persons did
not pass till February, 1831, and was not in force until the November
following. It was therefore impossible that the gallant General could
really have witnessed what he swears to have taken place. It must
have been the illusion of a dream.

Again, Sir John Keane tells us on his oath that one man in England
does more [labour] than ten Negroes (p. 168).

Again, he never even heard of a Council of Protection in Jamaica :
it must have been after his leaving the island (p. 169) ; while, in truth,
it forms a part of the acts of 1816 and of 1826, and was renewed in
the very act of 1829 upon which he himself put his veto as Governor.

Sir John Keane says he never heard of one complaint from slaves
during the whole time he was in Jamaica. Their condition was good;
they were contented ; their food and clothing were sufficient. He was
sure they would have complained had there been any cause ; but they

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of Sir John Keane. 495

never complained to him ; and he had never, even by accident, heard
of their complaining. They were advancing fast, according to Sir
John, in amelioration and moral improvement ; and he had never heard
of such a thing as any obstruction to it (p. 163 — 165).

The slaves, Sir John thought, if made free, would sit down and do
nothing, like the Maroons — ^nothing for themselves and nothing for
others ; and yet he says they had become excessively enlightened : many
could read and write, and could understand their catechism ; yet they
do not improve as to their habits of lying, thieving, dishonesty, and li-
centiousness ; but they pay great attention to their offspring, and they
have married more of late years. — The planters dislike the missionaries
as alienating their slaves from their work and home. — A slave protector
would, in his opinion, be of most dangerous tendency ; besides, such
a person was not required. The Governor, the King's representative,
was their best protector. In all his own visits round the country, he
had never heard a complaint in Jamaica (p. 169). There was a strong
disposition in the planters to improve the slaves in every way. A
protector is wholly unnecessary. If the Governor wishes for informa-
tion he can have it from the Gustos, or can write to the Gustos for
his opinion. No cruel proprietor or manager would be tolerated
in Jamaica. The Negroes would go to a magistrate either in a body
or individually ; but in the eight years he was in Jamaica he never
heard of a complaint, and never heard of a cause of complaint (p. 170
— 172). He is quite sure emancipation would lead to utter ruin and
extermination; "because," says Sir John, " an aggregate body of
350,000 slaves in Jamaica could not arrange, if they were emancipated
to-morrow, any thing like a livelihood or a state of creditable being
for themselves; and, with St. Domingo so close to them, I think they
would follow the ruinous example of that ill-fated island" (p. 173).

Sir John Keane reiterates with emphasis that he had never heard of
any complaint whatever. He then corrects himself, and says, he had
heard of one case of corporal punishment that took place when he
was in Jamaica. It was the case of the Rev. Mr. Bridges of St. Ann.
Being asked if he recollected the particidars, he said, "it was a very
nonsensical thing about a turkey which Mr. Bridges was angry about,
and he flogged his female slave ' in the most cruel manner in the
world.' " He knew of no other instance of corporal punishment,
and he never saw one himself, and never saw a slave struck. — How,
then, he is asked, are slaves made to work ? By usage and custom ;
they are used to it from infancy. He cannot tell whether they are
influenced by the fear of corporal punishment ; he never asked them
what motive they had ; he supposed, however, that the law sanctioned
the driver in arbitrarily punishing a slave, but over the law he had
never had any control. Slaves worked from habit, and from a wish
to serve their owners, but he understood they might be flogged if they
did not work. Masters did not wish drivers to flog them, and they
themselves had told him so. The magistracy of Jamaica he knew,
and thought them incapable of concealing cruelty (p. 175, 176).

The Negro, Sir John thinks, would consider emancipation as giving
him the " free exercise of his own will, which, by the character of the

496 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

animal, leads to idleness" (p. 177). He knew nothing- of spell or of
the interior management of estates but what he picked up in conver-
sation, or had seen himself at times. " The Negroes in Jamaica are a
magnificent race of people." He does not know whether the regula-
tions of estates are likely to make the Negroes industrious as " the
nature of the animal differs so much;" but, if free, " they would not
work as they now do, or work at all perhaps." And yet he saw nothing
like disgust with their work. " It was a most extraordinary thing ;
they were always singing," and they were most happy at the heaviest
work, " cracking their jokes, and singing from one end to the other ;"
but he has formed the opinion, and he " will stick to it," that they will
not work if free (p. 178—180).

He praised highly the discipline and good conduct of the black
soldiers, but he can draw no comparison between a soldier and a
Negro. The Negroes are idle; they would, if free, " like to enjoy
themselves in the sun and scratch themselves" (p. 182). He pro-
fessed great ignorance about religious instruction. He had never
given slavery a thought before he went out to Jamaica (p. 184).

Such is the evidence given by Sir John Keane, K.C.B., Commander
in Chief of the forces, and Governor, for a time, of Jamaica ! With
such Commanders and Governors no one can wonder that slavery, as
a system, should have been so little understood in this country ; and
that, with all its abuses, it should have lasted so long. But for the
indignation such things excite, it would be truly ludicrous to listen to
such dotages from public functionaries.

6. William Shand, Esq.

This gentleman was examined at great length before the House of
Commons, and a full abstract of his evidence will be found in our last
number, p. 431, &c. In substance, it is so identical with that given
before the Lords' Committee that it would be superfluous to abstract it
again. We find, however, a very few novelties, to which we shall
briefly advert.

Mr. Shand is explaining, philosophically, why the slaves eat little
animal food. He says (p. 198), " a population little accustomed to
eat animal food have no great desire for it. I believe, in many cases,
the Highlanders of Scotland cannot eat animal food. There are people
on my estate who have not tasted animal food, I should think, a
hundred times in their lives. They are satisfied with potatoes or
oatmeal."*

He had frequently seen the whip applied to women as well as men.
Both worked equally in the field. He did not know to how many lashes
a driver was now limited, as the law had been altered since he left
Jamaica! (p. 204).

* The people on Mr. Shand's estates, whether in the West Indies or in the
Highlands of Scotland, we presume, do not and cannot eat meat, precisely from
the same cause in both cases, because they have it not to eat.

t There has been no change in the law in this respect. It was ten lashes in
1788. It is ten lashes in 1833.

071 Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of Sir Michael Clare. 497

Mr. Shand repeats (p. 206 and p. 208) the extravagant proposition
that one day's labour might enable a slave to cultivate food enough for
the whole year; and that he has no need to labour on Sunday (p. 207).

The proceedings in this country are now, says Mr. Shand, the chief
occasion of punishments. Otherwise there would be few (p. 209).

" A slave is, in many respects, better off than if he were free. He
no doubt would have more time if he chose to labour. Beggars
swarm here. Mendicity is unknown in the colonies" (p. 209).

Mr. Shand affirms that no slaves have been branded since the slave
trade ceased : a law was then passed to forbid it"* (p. 210).

The slaves do not generally use mattresses. They no more desire
mattresses and bed-clothes than shoes. The Africans commonly prefer
going naked : their clothing is light, very light (p. 217).

After much shuffling about night work, Mr. Shand admits that in
crop-time he himself, as a book-keeper, was obliged to keep his eyes
open 18 hours and a half out of the 24 (p. 282). The Negro, he ad-
mitted, had daily six hours of additional work in crop-time (p. 283),

7. Sir Michael Clare, M. D.

This physician of 30 years' experience in Jamaica never knew or
even suspected an instance of a Negro being turned out to work when
unfit for it. Sick slaves had boards to sleep on, and, if their limbs
were broken, they were supplied with blankets (p. 264).

Suicide used formerly to prevail among Negroes. He could not tell
why, but thought it was because they expected to get back to their
country and friends on death. On one occasion, eleven slaves com-
mitted suicide. " One hung the other ten. He did it by persuasion,
and in a species of mirth and gaiety, and then hung himself, and, the
withes breaking twice, he hung himself the third time with a withe which
did not break ; and they were not discovered till all were perfectly
dead"t (p. 266),

Sir Michael scarcely recollected any slaves sent into the hospital in
consequence of punishment. In that respect they were much better off"
than soldiers, who were always sent there (p. 267). He recollected one
instance of a white man of the name of Lee, punished with fine and
imprisonment, and the freedom of his slave, a female, to whom he was
made to pay £10 a year, and whom after flogging he had stamped on
the breast with a heated stamping iron. And yet her crime was one for
which she would have been hanged in England ; running away and
stealing. She was a domestic. He did not recollect one act of cruelty
on estates, either in the hospital or out of the hospital (p. 268). He
had known sores indeed the effect of punishment, when Negroes hav-
ing been punished kept out of the way. The sores became fly-blown
(i. e. full of maggots). The custom is to confine the Negro who is
punished in the stocks till he gets well, but he never saw one so
punished as, if so confined, to make medical aid necessary. If allowed

* The first law on that subject was in 1831.

t The sapient physician did not explain how he came to know all this, none
remaining to tell the tale.

3 i:

498 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

to walk about, bad sores may follow (p. 269). The sores are on the
back and buttocks. But he never had to treat a slave medically merely
for having 39 lashes, except there were sores. He remembered two or three
cases of injuries inflicted on Negroes by persons acting under the im-
pulse of violent passion ; — one where the Chief Justice, a gouty and
passionate man, knocked out the teeth of his domestic, and injured his
own hand, and lost two of his own fingers, and nearly died in conse-
quence. He was not tried for the assault ; as the Negro made no
complaint. He was a very good master, and never struck his domestic
with that hand again (p. 269, 270).

The Negroes are liable to sores from brushwood and other things.
They will not, however, wear shoes at their work ; but only when in
full dress. He never knew an instance of debility from overworking
or insufficiency of food (p. 273). He kept the children on estates
healthy by dosing them every Monday morning with salt water to carry
off worms. The deficiency of breeding women was very striking, and
the perpetration of abortion common (p. 274, 275).

Negro parents are very severe, very harsh and tyrannical in punish-
ing their children. They do it with ebony rods on the buttocks. It is
a cruel and painful infliction : and he had heard, too, though he had
never seen it, of their pickling them afterwards with brine ; that is, ap-
plying salt over the raw part : but he never knew or heard of such
things on the part of masters, but only of parents (p. 275, 276). He
had seen it, however, in the army (p. 278).

The morals of the Negroes were improved in appearance, but not in
reality. They were all very licentious ; and proprietors, he thought,
had no power, and made no attempt to stop it, or to prevent wealthy
Negroes from engrossing several women. He saw no remedy but
removing the children wholly from their parents. Parents, however,
disliked this, as it deprived them of the aid of their children, whom they
wished to work for them while they sat still. They are more polished,
but not at all mended in reality as to morals ; and emancipation
would aggravate their vices, and lead to the indulgence of every vice
without restriction — (p. 277, 278).

In the same vague, gossiping, and unsatisfactory style, this learned
physician proceeds to talk upon a variety of topics, as abortion, po-
lygamy, marriage, religious instruction, progress of population, medical
treatment, day and night labour : but with respect to none of them had
he ever once heard of any thing to the disadvantage of the system, and
with respect to none of them had he ever even heard of any thing
occurring discreditable to it. He had never even heard of an instance
of the whip being used to stimulate labour, or of any insufficiency of
food, or of any waste of life by overworking or underfeeding. The
slave, at the same time, will never work if he can help it, and his only
idea of freedom is to sit down and do nothing (p. 279 — 287). No
Negro, if freed, will ever hold a hoe — will ever touch it ; with much
to the same effect (p. 288 — 290). And all this is sworn to by Sir
Michael Clare, M. D. !*

* It is worth while to contrast this account with the evidence of Dr. WiUiam-
son, a contemporary of Dr. Clare, who lived on Lord Harewood's estate. See
our Vol. ii. p. 249 and 317, and the pamplet " Negro Slavery."

'on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of Colonel Macdonald. 499

8. Admiral Sir Lawrence Halsted, K. C. B,

By this witness's account, nothing could surpass the comfort of the
slaves. They did not want to be free ; their comfort was studied to
the utmost. He never saw such nice arrangements for the sick as in
the hospital of Mr. Archdeckne's estates, in St. Thomas in the East.
He saw no stocks, and never saw a Negro in them ; he never saw a
hand lifted against a Negro, or a Negro scolded by his master. The
slaves show no signs of being ill used, hard worked, or badly fed.
His conversations with Sally Adams, his housekeeper and cook, which
he details very minutely, proved to him the general comfort prevailing
among them ; and, instead of any undvie means being used to make
women submit to licentious desires, the gentlemen of that country
were most respectable and virtuous in their ideas and habits. He never
saw a dejected countenance among slaves ; they all appeared cheerful,
some hard at work and some idle, for they are indolent and required
some one to stimulate them ; and without that he did not think they
would work at all. Their houses were very comfortable, with decanters,
tumblers, glasses, wine and spirits. They were not a bit jealous of
his going into their houses (p. 291 — 294).

He had seen an excellent school in Kingston attended by slave
children. — He was much opposed to having protectors for the slaves.
They would do harm and no good. He never knew but one or two
instances of cruelty ; and, from the general disposition of the com-
munity, the injured slave was sure of redress (p. 296, 297). He
always considered the slave as completely happy and contented :
they were better off than the peasantry in this country. Many
Englishmen would be exceedingly happy to be in their situation ; not,
indeed, to become slaves, for he did not think the system of slavery
would be a good thing for Old England : but still he should like to see
the labouring population here as well off as they (p. 298, 299). He
would not plead for making Englishmen slaves ; but he never saw any
cruelty, never heard any harsh language used to them. They had no
complaints, and abounded in comforts. He never saw them driven at
their work ; indeed he never was in the field when they were at work :
but he knew there was a driver with them with a sort of whip. He
had never seen ploughs at work, but he believed there were ploughs.
A whip being shown to him, he said that was a most horrible thing, and
had he seen that, he should have enquired more about it, for he could
not conceive it to be used where people had any feeling (p. 300 —
302). He did not know about their hours of labour, or their night
work. If free, they were so indolent he thought they would not
work without some law to compel them ; and yet those who supplied
the markets must be industrious. Concubinage was not more com-
mon, he thought, in Jamaica than in England (p. 304).

9. Colonel Alexander Macdonald.

This officer was in Jamaica two months at one time, and three at
another, and had been in the habit of visiting sugar estates. He had
never known any acts of cruelty committed towards slaves, nor ever

oOO Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

saw any punishments of field slaves. He had known a slave express
an opinion that he was better off in a state of slavery than he should be
in one of freedom (p. 305).

He had invariably seen the slaves in Jamaica both happy and con-
tented ; and he had known instances of slaves refusing their freedom^
for this reason — that, if they were old and could not work, there was
no one to take care of them ; but, by the slave laws, masters were
obliged to clothe and feed them. The service required is not half of
what was required in this country. He had never in his life known
what he called cruelty (p. 306). In Honduras, the only labour was
cutting mahogany : it is not severe labour. He never saw people
better treated in any country. Their food is very good. He never
saw any punishment inflicted on slaves there. Being Governor there,
he never permitted it. Their religious instruction was much attended
to, and all the slaves were in the habit of attending church. There was
a school attended by children, both slaves and free. Offences were
tried by magistrates chosen by the settlers of property, whether white
or coloured. Some of the coloured people were magistrates. They
had been treated ill by his predecessors ; but Sir George Murray had
approved of his appointing them to the magistracy. The slaves make
money by cutting logwood on their own account. There are Wesleyan
and Baptist missionaries there, who have done much good. The male
population exceeds the female, which is a great disadvantage. The
habits of the slaves are naturally licentious ; and, if free, it would be
morally impossible to keep them in order.* They are now kept in
order by knowing they are subject to the will of their masters ; but, if
left to themselves, they would not work at all. They are trusted with
arms without any apprehension of danger. They are well clothed.
They do not care for freedom ; and, in many instances, will not take
itt (p. 307—320).

10. The Rev. James Curtin.

Mr. Curtin had resided 30 years in Antigua, to which he went in
1799 as a missionary of the Conversion Society, and in 1819 took charge
also of the parish of St. Mary. The only religion he found among
the Negroes on going there had been imparted to them by the Mora-
vians and Methodists, chiefly by the former. Religious instruction
had made great progress since that time. The slaves were then gene-
rally very ignorant, except those who attended the Methodists and
Moravians. There were six parish churches ; but the clergy did not
then consider it a part of their duty to instruct the Negroes. There
was one Moravian and one Methodist meeting-house. There are now
the same six parish churches and five chapels of the Church of England,
also five Moravian and five Methodist establishments. The improve-

* And yet the number of emancipated people is very considerable, and they
are respectable and wealthy, by Colonel Macdonald's own admission,

f And yet, by looking at the returns from Honduras, it will be found that a
larger proportion of the slaves purchase their freedom there than in any colony
in the West Indies. See Anti-Slavery Reporter, vol. i., No. 19.

on Colonial Slavery. —Evideyice of the Rev. J. Curtin. 501

ment had been great before the Bishop went out in 1825, and many
could read the Scriptures well. He had baptized considerable num-
bers, and married 150 couples up to 1824.* He instructed them ac-
cording to the catechism of the Church, and the test of their being
sufficiently instructed was, their taking pains to learn the Creed, the
Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, as he could not enter
into their natural habits and know what their state of life was.f He
kept himself quite aloof from the sectarians, and minded his own
business ; he could not tell, therefore, how they went on ; but he was
on terms of courtesy with all religious parties, except sometimes tlie
clergy. He got, however, on one occasion, into a quarrel with the
President of the island, about some money matter, and was sharply
rebuked for it by the Bishop of London ; but he had been irritated by
being prevented by the President from adding to his small income of
£200 a year (having a wife and family). He did not however lose in the
end, as he afterwards got the charge, in addition to his salary as mis-
sionary, of one of the island livings (p. 345 — 348).

He was generally well received by proprietors, with one or two ex-
ceptions. " I always found," he says, " the slaves on plantations
very comfortably situated, generally speaking, and very rarely making-
complaints; they always looked well, cheerful, and happy." " I have
never known them grumble on the plantations with respect to their
allowances. Perhaps there may be an exception or two, and very
partial, by a few of the slaves." He had free access to plantations ;
but he never did any thing clandestinely, and always sent word to the
manager when he was coming. He had not known of any acts of
cruelty. He recollected once to have heard of a cruel thing, many
years ago, by a coloured man to his slave, and the coloured man was
put into prison for it. He did not think there were any severe and
unnecessary punishments. His general impression, latterly, was, that
the planters were very loth to punish their slaves, if they could help it ;
they had a great deal of feeling for them, and this feeling was much
stronger before he left the island (p. 349, 350).

* We find from the parliamentary returns, No. 204, of 1828, p. 18, that Mr.
Curtin, in his capacity of missionary, had married only 21 couple of slaves, and,
in his capacity of rector of St. Mary, 2 couple, from January 1, 1821, to Decem-
ber 31, 1825 ; and he was the only clergyman by whom any were married in those
years. This return is accompanied by a letter from Mr. Lane, the Colonial
Secretary and Clerk of the Crown of May, 1827, to the Governor's Secretary,
stating that there was then no law in Antigua making marriage between slaves
either a civil or religious contract, or for preventing the separation of husband
and wife ; so that the surprise is that Mr. Curtin should have married so many
even as 23. He alone indeed at that time married any.

f And yet what is the business of a minister of the gospel but to turn men
from their " natural habits," and to lead them to alter their " state of life ?" " But,"
says Mr. Curtin, " I could not enter" into that. Mr. Curtin, we find, from his
evidence, had been a Catholic priest before he became a Church of England
missionary. He seems to have adhered, in this case, to the doctrine of the suf-
ficiency of the mere opus operutum. He baptized them, and taught them to
repeat the Creed and the Pater-noster, not entering into the question of their life
and habits.

502 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

His mission was put an end to by the bishop in 1827. Prior to that
he had had at his mission chapel 306 communicants. Only some of
the clergy co-operated with him ; but others looked to the emoluments —
meaning, we presume, the baptismal fees; for he had no claim, he says,
on that score : he baptized free. The slaves were not buried in the
church yards, but in places appropriated for them. He heard one or
two instances of complaints from slaves of hardship or cruelty, but the
evidence was ex parte, and he did not choose to act upon it. The
magistrates, too, were always ready to give relief, and he advised their
going to the magistrate rather than coming to him (p. 350, 351).

Before marriages were so frequent as now, Negroes in many in-
stances lived together as man and wife, though not married. But
now their marriages are legalized and celebrated by banns, and the
children are now taken better care of. Almost all in Antigua are now
baptized. The Sunday is noAV well observed in Antigua, better than
in some parts of England. The slaves go to church, carrying their
prayer books, joining in the responses, and in the psalms and hymns.
He has seen them with the Bible and prayer book on their own little
tables, with decent chairs to sit on. A great number of them can read.
The Methodist and Moravian slaves are generally very regular, good,
well-behaved people. The slaves sometimes say they would prefer the
church if they could have the regular clergy to attend to them, as it
would be some saving of expense. Instruction has made the slaves, in
every respect, better. Henever had any idea of insurrection among them,
and should not now but for excitement. The service is attended by
white and black, but these sit separately. Formerly they did not com-
municate at the same sacrament table. The prejudice is lessening, and
the blacks are modest and do not press forward. He does not know
that there is any jealovisy between the church and the sectarians. He
never disputed with them, or aided them, but was always civil to them.
The Moravians had the greatest number of slaves, the Methodists the
greatest number of the free people (p. 352 — 354).

The slaves in Antigua were partly fed by a regular allowance from
their masters, and some of them had grounds. They had their noon
time to labour in their grounds ; and superannuated slaves and preg-
nant women could also go to the provision grounds when they pleased.
He had seen them working in their grounds, too, on Sunday : but not
so much now ; they now go to church very much ; still they work
habitually in their grounds on that day. The planters do not interfere
to prevent this, and no steps had been taken by the legislature or by
individuals to prevent Sunday labour for themselves ; they do not work
for their masters on that day unless voluntarily, and when paid for it,
except in picking grass for the cattle, which used to be done formerly,
and, for aught he knows, may still be done out of church hours
(p. 354, 355).

Mr. Curtin never visited a slave property on any account without
the leave of the master or manager ; he never attended the slaves
privately unknown to him (ibid).

When slaves complained to him he advised them to go to the magis-
trates. He only recollected one instance of his mentioning the matter

on Colonial Slavery.— Evidence of the Rev. J. Curtin. 503

to the master. He once applied to the master to forgive a slave for
running away. He refused, and the slave was punished (p. 356).

The Sunday market has recently been abolished by law, but the
slaves were averse to it, because they wished to go in their fine clothes,
with their fruit, &c., to market on that day, and there was an insurrection
about it They need not have broken the Sabbath, but they did it
that they might get another day, and they have got that other day
since ; the Saturday, he understood, was now allowed (p. 356, 357).

The excitement among the slaves to which he alluded arose from their
reading publications stating slavery to be a crime and a sin, and that
no man has a right to hold another man as his property. The slaves
would be more contented if left quiet. He was not for the perpetuity
of slavery, but for an imperceptible, gradual abolition of it ; and the
best thinking slaves themselves would be more contented to let things
go on quietly, and gain their freedom, than to have a complete extinc-
tion of it. The control of an owner over his slaves is so checked by
law and magistrates that, if ill disposed, he cannot behave ill to his
slaves. If a driver or manager punishes a slave arbitrarily he may be
called to account for it. He does not think the driver has now autho-
rity to flog a slave to a certain and limited extent. He had seen the
custom of carrying a whip in the field cease in many cases. It is now
carried in very few cases indeed ; and the Negroes know that so
many eyes watch the driver that he does not use his whip, and he
thinks it is not now applied to the person of the slave. In short,
slavery is merely nominal in Antigua : it is no longer absolute power
over the slave. The master is watched by the clergyman and the medi-
cal man ; and the Governor cites the master to his bar, so that he is
bound down by law (p. 358).

We shall have some remarks to make on much of the above abstract
of a part of this reverend gentleman's evidence before we have done
with him. In the mean time, the following part of his examination is
so striking a proof of his dexterity in evading inquiry, that we shall
give it in his own words : —

"Suppose a slave, when called upon to go into the field with the gang, refuses
to go, what means are employed to make him go ? He must allege the cause
for which he refuses ; he must give a reason. — Supposing it is an inadequate
reason ? Then a complaint must be made to the owner or manager. — Is the
whip employed to force hira to go ? I do not think it is employed at these
times. — Is he hable to be forced by the whip to go to his work ? If the driver's
use of the whip is not abolished ; I do not know whether that is or not.- — Do
you believe, if not prohibited, that he would be liable to be coerced ? With
that part of the business I was not so much engaged in ; mine was religious;
all I had to do when I visited theni was to see that they were contented. — Do
you believe that if the slave was coerced and punislied, either for refusing to
work or not working with sufficient diUgence, any slaves being of your congre-
gation would have stated to you the facts of the case ? Yes, I beUeve they
would. — Have you ever heard such complaint? I have scarcely ever heard
of one complaint. — Have you heard such complaint? Yes, some years ago;
not of late. — How lately have you heard such complaints ? Perhaps not since
1812 or 1813. — Is the slave in Antigua compelled to work by his apprehen-
sions of the whip? No, I do not think they are compelled to work; I think
they go voluntarily. The religiously educated Negroes will go to work frous

504 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

principle, as they conceive it is their duty to do. They must work. — Do you
know how many hours they work ? Tliat is another part of the business 1
never heard of any excess of labour. — That has a good deal to do with volun-
tary labour? The times that I thought the Negroes' appearance looked better
was in crop time. When they laboured most they always appeared better
in health and more cheerful than when they were not so employed. — Is
it to the increase of labour you attribute their improved appearance ? No ;
tliey receive more nourishment from the juice of the sugar cane, for they eat
plentifully of it in the field ; I believe they were not restricted. — Do you think
that the sugar cane, nutritious as it is, would improve the condition of yourself or
any other man who was fed at another time ? I do not know ; but I believe it
is nutritious. — If it had this effect on the slave, and it would not have the same
effect upon a well-fed man at another time, what inference is to be derived from
the fact : is it not a fair inference that his food had not been so ample previously?
I think they are generally well fed. — Are they over-fed in crop time ? I never
knew them to be under-fed : and I apprehend that at that time and at all times they
have provision sufficient out of their own grounds to carry to market to dispose of, to
buy them any thing they want. — You have been in the habit of seeing great brewers'
draymen going about town ? I have seen a great many draymen. — Do you think
they get fatter when they drink a great deal of porter ? I think that the draymen
here work much harder than they do ; I never see them drag such loads as they
do here. — If they refused to draw such loads in Antigua, what would be done to
those slaves ? But they never did require it. — What would be the consequence
to the slaves if they did refuse? The only instances I have seen of drawing is
tanks from the ships. — What would be the consequences to a slave of refusing to
do ihe work his master ordered him? would the slave be liable to corporal
punishment for that rejection ? He would be liable to confinement or something.
— W^ould he or not be liable to corporal punishment? I suppose he may be
liable to corporal punishment. — Do you consider the coercion to labour, as regards
the slaves in Antigua, as severe as that used in our navy and army ? I do not think
it is. I have seen sailors on board ships as I passed through, and I think they
are treated with greater harshness than the slaves by their masters. On board
merchant ships I have seen them treated with much more harshness by captains
or owners than I ever saw a slave treated in Antigua. — If they are ill-treated, is
that any reason why the Negroes should be ill-treated ? No : but I believe the
proprietor of the slave treats him with more kindness, looking to him for his la-
bour.— Do you conceive the sailors or soldiers are liable to the infliction of cor-
poral punishment at the will of their superior? I have seen them get lashes with-
out any order but the master's wish ; I have seen the cabin boy knocked about
by the captain. — Have you ever seen an instance of a soldier or sailor flogged at
the arbitrai-y will of his superior ? I have not been in the army. I can speak of
what I have read in different papers about the flogging them. — As an English-
man, do you not know that it would be contrary to law to inflict corporal punishment
on any one without an order of some court ? It would be considered an assault
for even a master to strike a servant, I conceive. — Would it be so in the case of
a slave ? The slave could call his master before the justice for it ; he could go
and take his complaint before the next justice, and the magistrate would imme-
diately order an investigation. — In going to make his complaint, would he not be
liable to be apprehended as a runaway unless he possessed a pass ? No ; I <io
not know that he would be liable to be apprehended as a runaway : and there
is another circumstance ; if the Negro slaves, whether male or female, considered
themselves to be aggrieved or harshly treated by their owners, or felt it unpleasant
to belong to such a man, they apply to the Governor, and he instantly
listens to their remonstrance, and their owner is summoned before him, and he
is desired to give that person a ticket to provide himself with another owner, and
the slave is at liberty to look out for another owner ; he is not obliged to live
with a person that he does not wish to serve ; if he says he is hardly treated by

Ort Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Curtin. 505

sueh a person, — * He is very severe to us, and we wish to belong to another
owner,' the magistrate says, * You must give him a ticket to get another owner.'
— Does he say, ' You must,' or ' I advise you V The owner in general would
wish it, because he does not wish to possess an unwilling slave ; he had rather
give him the ticket to get rid of him. — How many instances have you known of
such a case as that? i have heard two or three instances. — Have the goodness
to name them ? I cannot name them now. There is a general impression upon my
mind, but I can remember one instance. I have been very frequently called upon
to go to the slaves to visit them in their sickness and in the hour of their dis-
tress ; 1 have been called upon to visit them in gaol, and when they were under
sentence of death. In the year 1817, I think, there were two slaves condemned
to die that belonged to the Treasurer of the island ; they were condemned for
breaking open the bureau and getting money out of it. I was called to visit
them, and administer baptism to one of them under sentence of death. When
they were to be carried out to execution, 1 desired the black man — one was a
fair-coloured man and the other black, — ' Speak to your friends every thing that is
in your heart, and give them some advice, as you are going to leave the world,
to show your regret and sorrow for robbing your master.' He told them that
he was led into temptation, having free access to his master's keys, and that they
took the keys out of the chest and robbed their master, and dissipated the money ;
' But,' said he, ' I will tell you — I will tell it as a dying man — I wish it to be
known to all the Negroes (this was at the place of execution), I wish it to be
known to all bystanders, that if whites are to be attended, 1 would not advise
them to be attended by Negroes, for whites are the properest persons to attend
on white persons, for we are not willingly domestics or agriculturists to the white
people.' This man said so on the place of execution. Now, said I, observe
this, and I minuted it down, and I took notes. In the course of my ministry I
always found an unwillingness in the Negroes who became free to become do-
mestics and agriculturists ; they will frequently reproach one anoth^', and say,
' You menial' " (p. 357— 360).

" Have the goodness to state what makes the essential difference between the
Negro and the rest of mankind so great that he would not be actuated by the
same stimulus to labour that the rest of mankind, being free, are actuated by ? I
believe the climate has a great deal to do with it. — You are aware that there are
free persons who labour in climates as hot as that at Antigua? Yes; I suppose there
may. — Why should the Negro be unwilling to work for wages, when wages will
induce others in a similar climate to labour? I only know this, that I believe
the wants of the Negroes are so few that they would not expend much time at
their work to have those wants supplied. They would require little clothing and
little food. In those tropical climates they can do with much less food and
clothing than in these northern climates. The Negroes are naturally inclined
to indolence ; they would rather go a fishing, and so on, than give themselves up
to agricultural labour. When they are made free they take tiades, such as shop-
keepers and dealers, and so on, to avoid being under any authority of any kind. They
frequently go off to other islands seeking their fortune, and come back, not succeed-
ing in other places, and go living among the Negro slaves on the plantations if they
can. — You mean that the slaves in those hot climates would prefer fishing to cane-
hole-digging? Yes; if they were free. — From that you infer that the slave
would not labour for his own subsistence if free ? They would labour in fishing
or something of that kind, but they would not at other occupations. — Not even
to save themselves and their families from starvation ? I have no great opinion
of their foresight; I think they generally look to the present time. — You have
stated that they have, in many instances, acquired considerable property? They
have acquired property, some of them. — By what means did they acquire this
property ? By raising vegetables and fruit and stock. — Is not that done by the
exertions of their own industry? Yes; but there are exceptions to general
rules; there are a few exceptions. — How can you reconcile with the fact tliat

3 u

506 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

the slaves labour on their provision grounds during the portion of time which is
their own, the great portion of it being devoted to the service of their master, ihe
supposition that if made free they would not labour for their own subsistence,
having the command of all their time ? I think 1 can reconcile that by showing
that those slaves I allude to are in superior circumstances to some of the other
Negroes, as there are in all gradations of society persons of superior talent ; and
by the perquisites those superior Negroes receive, by saving some of those per-
quisites they have, they are able to lay up something ; and then, by having a
power over other slaves, they can make up this deficiency. — You mean to say
that the possession of property is confined to the superior class of slaves, such as
head men, drivers, and artificers? The possession of considerable property. —
You know no instance of field Negroes possessing such property? Yes ; there
are field Negroes I have seen very comfortable too. — You would not call the
field Negroes a superior class? The field Negroes frequently appear to be such.
They have a good deal of stock. I have bought stock from them myself, and
fruit. — Have you ever known an instance of a free man returning to labour in the
field ? Never. — You say many of the slaves possess horses : are they allowed
to possess horses ? I believe there is no law now against it ; 1 have seen them
come to church and driving about with their horses on Sunday. — Do you speak
of common field Negroes keeping horses ? No, not the common field Negroes :
the head men on the estates. There was another instance I knew ; — a boat was
carried away with some slaves from the island by a storm ; it was carried to
another part of the country ; and I have known an instance of them returning
to their owners rather than remain free ; I knew a man, and I spoke to him one
day; I said, ' You have returned ?' He said, ' Yes, massa; I have returned
in preference, to live on massa's property.' — You are aware that there are on the
island of Antigua several hundred free Negroes, under the name of liberated
Africans ? Yes. — They are persons who have been captured in consequence of
the abolition of the slave trade, and as such are free ? Yes ; there are, I believe,
a few hundreds, not very many, perhaps two or three hundred. I have baptized
and administered the Sacraments to some of them as African apprentices ; they
were never considered as slaves. — Do you know any thing of the mode in which
they maintain themselves? They were maintained for a time by the Custom
House. — How long has that ceased? I know it has ceased, and that they were
directed to be freed, and that they went about as jobbers, in the town, as porters,
and things like that; but I did not see any of them go to agricultural labour.—
How long is it since you were in the island ? A year and ten months ago. I
had two of these African apprentices myself. I will tell an instance regarding
one of those men. I got one of them apprenticed to me in the year 1811. — As
what ? He was apprenticed to me. It was thought advisable to put them to
some trade. I had a Negro a tailor, and I bound him to that tailor to learn
that trade: he was with me from the year 181 1 to nearly the time I left. There
was an order sent from Government to make them free ; this man came and
said, ' I have an order. Sir, to be free.' I said, ' You have been free these three
years, why do not you accept it T — ' Oh massa, I had rather remain with you.'
I said, ' You may remain as you are.' He remained there for a few months,
but some free person put it into his head that he ought to get more wages front
me. He came and applied for more wages; I said, ' No ; you said you were
contented to remain ; if any body puts it into your head, go where you can
better yourself;' and he went from me, kept away for about six weeks, and then
returned about three months before I left the island, and he said, ^ Massa, they
make me fool.' He had been to persons to work for them, but he said he had
worked harder, and had rather come back. — Do you know whether those free
persons maintain themselves in the island by their own industry and by the
wages of labour, or by what means ? I believe some of them maintain them-
selves by their own industry ; but I believe some of them live on the plantations
among the Negro slaves, and work for the Negro slaves on the plantations ;

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Cur tin, 507

whether they are connected by having wives, or vsromen having husbands, and so
that they live with those people, I cannot say : they will not go to agriculture
willingly. — Do you or not know that those persons actually do maintain them-
selves by the produce of their own industry? I do not know that they do. —
Did you not say that they worked about the town? Some of them. — And some
you say you saw on different estates? Yes. — Those persons you describe as
going and living among the slaves are persons who have within a very few years
been brought to the island from Africa? Yes. — They are not Creoles ? No, —
Have you known any instance, of your own knowledge, of those native Africans
who have spoken no English at all going and living among the slaves on any
plantation? Not the newly-arrived Africans; they have been some time on the
island as apprentices to people ; then when they become liberated they have
liberty to go on the plantations. — Their numbers have been increasing year by
year ? I do not think there are more than three or four hundred altogether. —
Do you know, of your own knowledge, that any of those persons had gone and
lived among the slaves on the plantation doing nothing ? I do not mean to say
doing nothing ; they work with the slaves. — Who pays them? The master of
the estate does not pay them. — They are supported out of a portion of that which
the master gives to support the slave ? Yes; or they may perhaps work to help
the slave to keep house or to mind his stock. — Were those captured Africans in
any instance among the proprietors of Antigua as apprentices ; were they desir-
ous of obtaining them ? Yes ; they were desirous of obtaining them when they
first arrived ; 1 did not hear of any latterly coming there. — Did they continue
in general satisfied with the services of those apprenticed Africans ? Yes, gene-
rally ; there have been complaints. — Do you know the Governor of Antigua?
Yes, perfectly well. — He is not liable to misrepresent any thing ? Not at all. —
If he were to represent that they were remarkably well conducted, very indus-
trious, and supporting themselves by the produce of their own industry, with
very few complaints against them for misconduct, should not you suppose that
to be conclusive evidence that those persons were not precluded, either by their
habits or dispositions, from supporting themselves by honesty and industry ? If
the Governor gave that testimony positively and decidedly, after proper inquiry
and investigation, I should begin to hesitate ; but firom my own knowledge^ — I
do not speak of the Governor's knowledge, and I think I have as much right to
know as the Governor about those Negroes — I have known of several complaints
on estates of their trespassing on the properties, and I have known them to be
idle in the towns, and taken before the magistrates. I do not think it is so much
in the Governor's way to know of these sort of things as a person who is living
as I am among the Negroes. — Supposing the Governor's account of the condi-
tion of those Negroes should have been given lately, you having been absent a
year and ten months ? Then there must have been a great change since I was
tiiere. — Have the goodness to state some instance of the trespass you refer to ?
I recollect no instances ; I have had a general impression upon my mind they
are on Sir Henry Martin's, and on an estate on another part of the island,
towards the old road. — When did this take place? It took place before my leav-
ing the island. — How long before? Perhaps a year or two before I left the
island. — How do you know that those trespasses were committed by the liberated
Africans ? I know the Africans to be living upon the estates, and I have heard
it fi-om the managers. — Do you mean to say that a trespass took place on the
property ? They lived upon the estate. I do not know whether it is to be called
a trespass. — You stated that they had been guilty of trespassing? 1 do not know
that they had been guilty. They were living among the Negroes on the estates. —
What do you mean by the word trespass ? Living on other person's estates. —
Against their will ? Perhaps without their consent. — You do not mean to repre-
sent that they had been guilty of any crime ? No ; I cannot say as to crime.
If they had been guilty of crime, they would have been amenable to the laws. —
In whose houses did they live ? In the Negro houses. — The houses of the plan-

508 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

tation grounds ? Yes. They helped the Negroes where they had husbands and
wives. — Did you ever hear of an instance of one of those Africans going to field
labour? No, I never did. I had one of them, called an African apprentice,
and he would not work in the garden if I sent him. — What wages did they get?
Haifa dollar a week, besides any clothes they wanted — Were those board wages?
Yes ; they had wages and board wages, and clothes whenever they wanted them.
— Was that half dollar a week board wages, or did you feed them besides ?
They got that to feed themselves, and they were frequently fed off the table. —
Did they get nothing but the half dollar a week ? They got clothes besides, and
occasionally something from the table. — Did they get that every day ? When
they wanted it. — You have been asked about a slave having made money by his
industry, his labour consisting of rearing poultry and small stock ; is that at all to
be compared to field labour ? No, certainly not ; but those men frequently got
perquisites. — Is it your opinion that the attendance of the Negroes on divine
worship would be increased or diminished by their emancipation ? That is a
question I should wish to take time to consider. — Do you think the attendance
of the Negroes at divine service would be increased or diminished if they were
emancipated? May I ask whether the question refers to their being let loose
without restraint? — If their manumission took place, would their attendance on
divine worship be increased or diminished thereby ? I do not know what to say
to that question ; I think they act as well now as they would do when emanci-
pated.— Do you think they would attend as well? I think they attend as well
now as they would then. — Do you think, if they were freed from all restraint,
they would attend as well ? I do not think they would attend as well if they were
free from all restraint.— Do you believe that in the same situation in which eman-
cipated Negroes now are, they would attend as well? I do not think they would.
Do you know any instance of emancipated slaves attending a place of worship
now ? Yes. — 'What reason have you to think that the slaves who might be eman-
cipated hereafter would not attend church as regularly and as willingly as slaves
who have been manumitted ? The reason I think so is, that the slaves who have
been manumitted have been gradually brought up and inured to attending church ;
but that with immediate extinction of slavery, that would throw things into such
a state of confusion that I cannot tell what they would do. — You assume that
which is not intended in the question, namely, that upon emancipation the slaves
are to be freed from all restraint whatever ; whereas the question supposes the
slaves being manumitted, and legal restraint substituted for absolute power, proper
means of instruction being afforded them, and every sort of means used to secure
good order and proper conduct among them ? I will answer that question in
this manner : — if any sudden change took place in the system at present, they
would not draw that distinction your Lordship does; but they will, say, ' If we
are to be free, we will do what we please, and go where we please.' The Negroes
would not take that into consideration ; they would imagine themselves to be a
free people. — Do you mean the freedom from the whip ? I mean that freedom
being given them, or any change of this kind, would upset their ideas altogether,
and that they would not know what they were about ; they would say, ' The law
is a sufficient protection for us ;' though I conceive the laws could not sufficiently
protect him. — Do you apprehend that emancipation, in the opinion of the slave,
means freedom from restraint of the law ? 1 conceive that emancipation, in their
opinion, is exemption from any kind of control whatever ; not merely from legal
restraint. I conceive that any slaves would immediately conceive they were
exempt from any control. — Do you conceive that they would consider it as exemp-
tion from the municipal law as the law exists ? I do not know ; they do not en-
quire about the municipal law ; they will say, *We are free, and we will be free.'
— They know the difference between restraint and slavery ? I think they are
satisfied as they are at present. — Would they not think it an exchange between
present slavery and a proposed state of restraint ? I do not think they would. —
You think their notion of emancipation is entire exemption from all labour ?

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J, Curtin. 509

From all control. — Do you think that they understand it also as an exemption
from labour? Some of them do. — Have any pains been taken to correct that
erroneous opinion ? Some pains have been, and some are content enough to labour ;
but if they are to be exempted, who is to give them land, and what is to become of their
old and their young people ? — Where they have been convinced of their error, you
do not mean to say that the slaves do understand emancipation to be freedom from
control? It is a very delicate subject; the more I tiiink of it the more I
think it is hazardous to touch upon it. There have been great improvements lately.
I am for amelioration, and progressive amelioration, and that by episcopal control ;
and that gradual amelioration has taken place in a wonderful degree. — In how
many years do you think that the slaves might possibly arrive to a fit state, in
your opinion, to be emancipated ? Perhaps it may take half a century; but I will
mention one circumstance that will lead to conclusions. Out of 5560 slaves I
baptized as slaves, nearly one-fifth part of them became free by the voluntary
consent of their owners, so that they were become fit subjects for freedom, and no
doubt many others will become fit subjects for freedom. — You think that the
emancipation should take place gradually ? Yes. — Those persons have conducted
themselves well since ? Yes ; I have seen their children and grandchildren ; but
the generality of new slaves would not do at all to be freed, — Did those persons
remain in the island after they had been freed ? Yes, some of them have. — You
have spoken of persons trespassing ; you do not mean as a crime, but that they
had lived with others, and obtained a livelihood in that way ? Yes. I cannot
tell what has happened since I left. — Do you mean by trespass that they were
living in those houses without the knowledge of the master or manager ? I do not
wish to use the word 'trespass;' but perhaps the master does not choose, for
kindness to his own slave, to interfere with them if they have a husband or wife
there. — In a part of your evidence respecting the punishment of slaves in going to
the field, you have stated there was no necessity for punishment, as they went out
voluntarily to labour ; explain that word ' voluntarily ;' do you mean by voluntary
labour that their habits were such as to induce them to go into the field without
compulsion ? or did you mean what others understand by it, with a reference to
labouring or doing nothing? I mean that the slaves, when they are going to work,
go as a matter of course, as they know it is their duty ; and therefore they
willingly do what they know to be their duty. — Do they not know that they
would be flogged if they omitted it? They know that they might be confined or
flogged, but they do not go under fear of the whip. — You know that ? I know
that they may go reluctantly ; but there are very few cases in which they are re-
luctant; but very few" (p. 360 — 366).

" Is there any regulation in Antigua that they shall have one day to themselves
in every fortnight ? Since I left it I understand there has been ; it was in some
places v/hen I left. — Have they plenty of time to cultivate their own provision
grounds, without working on Sunday, if so disposed ? No ; 1 think they must
intrench upon the Sunday for their plantation grounds before this allowance lately
made to them was made. — Are the free people considered in general to live by
. industry, or are they charged with encouraging plunder on estates ? With regard
to the free people of Antigua, I know many of them are in a very respectable
class ; some are not respectable, and some are trespassers — the lower orders of
them. — Is it a matter of complaint amongst the proprietors that the free people
are often harboured upon their plantations without their knowledge, and that
plunder is encouraged by them ? I have heard that complaints are made, and
very serious complaints too; I have heard of free people taking boats and
taking people's slaves oflP the island, and I have heard them complain that their
stores have been robbed by the free people. — Is it not possible that many of those
liberated Africans subsist by the plunder of the plantations on which they reside,
where they are harboured in the Negro houses? I suppose they are like other
free people ; some of them are very good characters, educated men ; but many
are otherwise" (p. 367).

510 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

"You say you occasionally heard complaints ; that you discouraged ex parte
statements, and you recommended them to go to the magistrates. You were
asked whether you could bring to mind any case, and you could not recollect
any instance ? I could not bring to my recollection any instance when asked
yesterday. I think [ recollect one case — the case of an estate called Miller's.
A white man came to me to make complaint that the manager of Miller's estate
had used a woman very ill, and he brought the woman with him. She was a
woman that he kept ; he was an overseer on the estate. That being out of my
line I did not feel it right to make any interference in these sort of things. I sent
one of our old nurses, a slave woman, to look at this woman, to see what inflic-
tion of punishment there had been upon her, and she made a report that she was
punished, and I immediately sent for the man. 1 said, ' I shall not take upon
myself to look at this punishment, it does not belong to me as a minister, but you
will go directly to a magistrate and show this woman, and make a report.' He
did not go as I directed, but he waited three or four days before he went; then
he was obliged to imdergo a trial, and 1 believe was imprisoned for a false accu-
sation. I consulted Mr. Burke, the Attorney-General, and he said I did very
properly in not interfering ; that it was a malicious charge against the manager. —
The complainant in that case, when you did interfere, was punis'ned for interfer-
ing? He could not make out the case. — How was he punished? I think he was
put in prison. There was an action for slander, or something to that effect, brought
against him. — The fact was that the woman was flogged ? Yes ; but not with that
severity that the man described. She was flogged on the back. It was a woman
that he cohabited with ; and the man himself turned out no great things after-
wards.— Do you recollect the name of the woman that was flogged ? I do not;
perhaps it may be on my minutes ; but the name of the manager against whom

the charge was made was , a Scotch gentleman. I think that was about

the year 1807. I said there were exceptions to the general good conduct, and
that was one of the exceptions. — Are you acquainted with the estate of the

Honourable Mr. , called Orange Valley ? Yes, I am very well acquainted

with it. — Is not Mr. — a magistrate and a member of His Majesty's

Council ? He was a member of His Majesty's Council. I have been told lately
that he is not now. — What was the treatment of the slaves on that plantation;
was it not humane and indulgent ? Taking it upon the whole he was a good man.
He kept his slaves well clothed and well fed. Taking it upon the whole, it was
reported he worked them hard ; but I did not observe much about that. — You

considered Mr. to be a kind master? Taking the man altogether he was

a good master. He had little freaks and oddities of his own, but not cruel. —
Was he not generally respected in the island ? He was in the first class in the
island ; I used to meet him at the Governor's myself. He was not considered a
cruel man by any means ; he had enemies, I know. I used to find myself
a litde rough language from him. From the nature of the business I
was employed in I was looked upon with a sort of suspicious eye. 1
was called a friend to the slaves ; and now I am here 1 am said to be

a friend to the planters. Mr. ■ would say, ' Oh, you are an emancipator.' —

Have you been so called here? I was called so by a clergyman of Bristol.
I was visiting, and met with clergymen who are of the Anti-Slavery party ; they
asked me a number of questions, and in return I demanded of them what they
thought of my opinions ; they said, ' We cannot contradict you, for we have not
been there; but we think you are a friend of the planters, and a practical minis-
ter to the slaves.' — Did you not know the late James , a magistrate ?

Yes; but never as a magistrate. — Did you know Mr. • , the magistrate?

I never knew him as a magistrate. I have been told since I came here that

Mr. has been put into the commission. — You knew them as gentlemen?

Mr. was a gendemanly man. — Was not ? Mild, with a rude

character. — W^ere not they persons of respectability and good character ? ■

was not a bad character. — Were they religious men ? I do not know much

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Gurtin. 511

about religion ; I know he was a freemason, — Have you not heard of

Mr. shooting one of his boys ? Yes, I heard a report of it. It happened

long before I got into the parish where he was ; it was when I was a missionary,
— You were in Antigua at the time ? Yes. — Can you state the circumstances
under which it took place ? I know no more about it than what I observed in

the island at the time; I only heard the report. — Did you hear of Mr.

killing another Negro, and burying liim in a pond ? — I never heard of his killing
a Negro, but I heard of his burying a white matross in the sand ; but that was
only hearsay. I only heard of it from persons, perhaps, that were not his friends.
With regard to shooting the Negro, he went and gave himself up for that, and I
believe he was acquitted, or the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of acci-
dental death. There was some sort of trial, but I believe there was a great deal
said about it that probably he did not deserve ; I think so. — Was he tried for it?
I think he was; lie gave himself up to the Attorney General for the time. I am
not clear about it. I asked him the question about it once; he said it was some
accidental thing ; he was shooting out in a part near his own house, and that this
was a favourite slave, and that the gun went off when he did not intend it, and some
one gave it out that it was intended. — Was he tried ? I believe he was. — Were
you in the island at the time ? Yes ; but it did not come so much within my
view ; I was only a missionary. — You heard of his burying another slave ? Yes ;

but that is no proof that he killed him. — Is not the nephew of Mr. now

in this country ? I heard somebody say that he was going out to Antigua. I
know him well too" (p. 401, 402).

" Was not Mr. the manager of Rigby's estate ? Yes, he was once. —

Did not that estate belong to Mr. ? Yes. — Was not that let to ?

Yes, as I have heard. — At the expiration of that lease did not Mr. , the

father-in-law of Mr. , recover damages in an action at law from the lessees

for injury done to the slave gang under Mr. management? I cannot

speak to that any further than I heard there was an action at law ; but I never
heard it was for an injury to the slave gang ; I heard it was for an injuiy to the
property generally. — The slave gang would be a part of that property ? Yes ; I
heard of the trial, but I was not in the court house. — Do you know the result of

that trial ? I know that the action was given in favour of Mr. ; I believe

he recovered damages. — Was not Mr. a member of your vestry at the

Valley Church? Yes. — Have the goodness to state what conversation you have

had with Mr. at any time respecting the stated cruelty of Mr.

towards the slaves ? I do not recollect any conversation with Mr. upon

that business. — Are you sure you never had any? Never, that I know of, about
the cruelties of Kearns" (p. 402).

" Have you ever heard of a Mustee slave, belonging to Mr. , of the

name of Betsey White ? Yes, I have. — Was she not confined by Mr.

in his dungeon ? I cannot from my own knowledge say any thing of that. — You
have spoken of what you heard of the liberated Africans; do you or not believe
this to have been the fact ? I do not know to my own knowledge ; I heard a
report of it. — Did you believe the report ? I think in the general way it is pos-
sible it may have been the case. — Was she not delivered of a child during the
night in the dungeon ? I do not know that ; I heard talk of it. — Do you believe
it ? I did not give much attention to it ; I do not think it was at the time I was
rector of the parish, or I should have given more attention to it. — Was not the
woman without assistance in that dungeon? I cannot tell. — Did you not hear
it ? I might have heard it, and not believed it. — Do you believe it, or not ? I
do not think I can believe it to the extent which will authenticate it, for I know
that this gentleman had enemies. — Was it not discovered in the morning that the
child had been devoured by rats during the night? That is a question I know
nothing of from my own knowledge ; people may say that. — Did you hear it ?
Yes, I heard such things. — Was not this slave subsequently sold, with the rest
of her children, to Mr. George White, the Collector of the Customs? I think I

512 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

heard that too ; but I do not think I knew it. I do not think that happened
when I was rector of the parish. — Did not tin's sale take place by advice of the
magistrates ? I declare 1 do not know that either. — You do not know those
facts ? No ; I might hear them, but I do not know them ; and I did not know
the woman. — You have no other knowledge of those circumstances but rumour?
Yes ; just so. — Was not the advice of the magistrates as to this sale given in con-
sequence of Mr. Osborne's cruelty to the slave? I cannot say, indeed. — Did

you ever hear of Rock Dungeon belonging to Mr. ? This is the first

time I ever heard of it — Did you ever hear of any dungeon belonging to Mr.

, in which he confined his slaves ? I was never there ; I never saw it. —

Do you recollect having heard of a dungeon in which he confined his slaves ? I
really do not know. I heard nothing particular of his dungeon more than other
people's dungeons. — You have heard of a good many people's dungeons ? Yes ;
there are dungeons ; and many persons considered it proper to have a dungeon,
though they did not probably use it. — -Will you state that you do not know any
instance of a slave being confined in a dungeon? Yes; I believe there have
been instances of slaves being confined in a dungeon. — Then they are not entirely
for the purposes of terror ? Not entirely ; partly for terror, partly for punish-
ment,— Have you ever seen one of those dungeons? Yes; I recollect having
seen one some years ago ; that was a stone building,' with a proper door and a
window, like the cages I have seen in Ireland. — Were they under ground ? No ;
they were well ventilated. I saw one in Briggens, and the manager told
me that he kept it for terror, for that the Negroes were more afraid of con-
finement on the Saturday evening than of any thing. — Were they subter-
raneous? No. — Did you ever see a dungeon dug out of a solid rock,
without any aperture except the front? No, never. — Did you ever hear of

Mr. confining a slave boy a whole year in his dungeon? No. —

Nor for any considerable length of time? No. — Nor for any time at all?

No. Mr. is only just a friend of mine ; I cannot say a friend, any more

than a parishioner. I have been on the estate frequently, and I think if there
was any cruelty among the Negroes upon that estate I should have heard of it
one way or the other, and I never heard of that word, rock dungeon, upon his
estate. — Did any of the Negroes ever complain to you of cruelty ? No,^o more
than other people's Negroes ; they always told me that they were well fed. —

Was not Mr. connected with an estate called Harvey's estate? Yes ; he

is of Harvey's. — Was he not prosecuted ? I understood since I left the island
that lie was. — Will you state the offence for which he is said to have been prose-
cuted ? I have seen some newspaper from Antigua. — Is the newspaper the only
source of your information upon the subject? Yes ; I have had no particular
communication from any inhabitant upon the subject. — Have you not heard any
thing from any friend as to the prosecution of Mr. ? 1 have been con-
versing with the proprietor, a very old gendeman, Mr. of Portland-place,

who told me that they had been prosecuting his attorney. — Are you ignorant of
the offence for which he was prosecuted ? Quite ignorant. — You do not know
that it was for cruelty — flogging some Negroes on Harvey's estate ? No, I do
not. — You have not heard that? Really I do not know whether I heard it was
for cruelly flogging or not" (p. 403 — 405).

Having given these characteristic extracts, -sve now proceed with
the abstract of what reinains of Mr. Curtin's evidence.

He could not tell very clearly how many hours of the day the slaves
worked in Antigua, but he believed from sunrise to sunset, with
intervals of half an hour or an hour for breakfast, and two hours for
dinner. If they are required to v/ork during these intervals, they are
paid for it. In crop time they are allowed every thing requisite
(p. 366, 367).

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Curtin. 513

A question arose with respect to the slaves in his congregation who
were polygamists, which was referred to the Society at home. By
their advice he required that every slave, previous to baptism, should
renounce a plurality of wives, and he did not admit to it those who re-
fused to select one wife of the two or more he had (p. 396, 397).

The living- to which he was appointed in 1819 had a population of
4132, the slaves being 4000, and the plantations twenty-five. He
was himself possessed of slaves by marriage, about eighteen or nineteen
at one time. He had manumitted one of them, a female, for six joes.
It was against her own wish ; but he urged her, because he thought,
as she had already three or four children free, she might as well
be free with them. He had, it was true, given an opinion to the Com-
mittee, that slaves, if free, would not labour for their subsistence,
being of indolent habits and disinclined to industry; and that therefore
to give them their freedom would be anything but kindness He was
still of that opinion generally, but there were exceptions as in this
case. Some will work well when free. This woman would work :
she was a very valuable woman, and made dresses, and net laces, and
things of that kind. There are also exceptions of valuable men, who
deserved to be made free, who yet lived content as slaves. He had tried
to sell all his slaves since he came to England, but had not succeeded
in his negociation ; but he did not care about it. If he could have got
rid of them, he and Mrs. Curtin were disposed to do so (p. 399).

He did not think the Methodist slaves were better than the
Moravian. But he thought the Church of England best of all, and
free from cant and hypocrisy. He had never made any calculation as
to the more or less of crime among the different classes (p. 403).

The Sunday schools were open for slaves except during service.
He has seen them there from morning to evening, as many at one
time as at another, domestic slaves taking it, he supposed, by turns.
The liberated African apprenticed to him was an inoffensive creature,
but a man of small intelligence, and could scarcely learn his trade of
a tailor (p. 407 and 408). The liberated Africans he thought inferior
to the free Creoles, but superior to the slaves ; but the slaves attended
Church (we presume as contradistinguished from Methodist and Mo-
ravian places of worship) more than either the liberated Africans or
the free (p. 407).

He had quitted the Catholic Church for the Church of England on
conviction that the latter was the most scriptural (p. 406).

He had had a dispute with a gentleman, a lawyer in Antigua, in
1814, whom he had charged with being a coward, because he took ad-
vantage of his cloth to insult him by doubting his word, and giving
him the lie. He did not choose to horsewhip the lawyer as it was
before a magistrate ; but, being very indignant, as they went down
the steps of the magistrate's office, he took the lawyer by the ear, and
the lawyer put his hand to his face and broke a pimple on his cheek
which bled. It was not a boxing match: this was all. Neither
struck the other any more. They were prevented by the crowd, and
were both bound over by the magistrate to keep the peace (p. 406
and p. 409, 410).

3x

514 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

Mr. Curtin was further examined about Betsy White, the Mustee
slave. He knew nothing, he said, but by common report. He had
heard, but could not tell, that she was confined by Mr. — in a dun-
geon, and had been delivered there without assistan<;e, and that the
child was devoured by rats ; but the report was vague and he did not
inquire into it, and did not believe it to be true. It made no impression
on him ; he knew the man had enemies. He did not believe it
enough to think it worth while to make any inquiry into the subject.

We have thus given the evidence of Mr. Curtin very fully and fairly,
and we have purposely avoided to break its continuity, however much
we were tempted to do so, by any partial observations. But, now that we
have brought it to a close, we must take the liberty of making upon
its statements a few passing comments, which may possibly run to some
length. The occasion, however, seems to require this; because in the
whole host of pro-slavery witnesses, produced before the Lords' Com-
mittee, we have met with none more justly chargeable with a want
of ingenuousness in the course of his examination, and whose an-
swers are more dexterously calculated to mislead the ignorant and
unwary, than those of this reverend gentleman. We proceed to make
our charge good :

1 . It is a regular plan with Mr. Curtin to guard his answers, as far
as he can, from all awkward hazards of cross-examination, by reserving
in most cases " an exception or two" from the generality of his praise
of the humanity of the slave system and its administrators. But, in
his account of the allowances of food to the slaves which the law pre-
scribes, he entirely avoids stating the amount of those allowances, and
how very scanty he knew them to be ; for this would at once have
revealed to the Committee the fact of their entire incompetency for the
comfortable subsistence of a working slave. He says nothing therefore
of quantity, but speaks of the absence of all grumbling about it on
the part of the slaves, unless in a few excepted cases ; and the inference
he obviously meant should be drawn from his evidence is, that the
provision for the slaves, generally speaking, was abundant. But what
was the fact, — a fact that must have been perfectly well known to Mr.
Curtin, because he had slaves of his own to whom he was bound to deal
out the allowances prescribed by law ? It was this ; that the master
was required (Act of 1798, sec. 1) to give weekly to each adult slave
eight pints of flour and twenty ounces of herrings, or equivalent food ;
and half that quantity to children. Mr. Curtin knew very well that
this was a miserably starving allowance ; but he knew too, and the
slaves knew, that it was fixed by law, and that complaint therefore was
vain. But he suppresses the fact of the amount of the allowance, and he
swears that the slaves were contented with it, and that few grumbled.
What greater act of unkindness could any man have been guilty of
towards the slaves of Antigua than so to state their case, under the
sanction of his clerical character and the solemnity of an oath, as to
lead Parliament to believe that the food allowed them is ample,
though it was such as be himself, if confined to it, must have sunk under ?

2. Let us take a review next of the wavin which this clergyman treats*

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. J. Curtin. 515

the important question of the Sabbath. He does not tell us frankly
of the long and obstinate adherence of the planters of Antigua to the
practice of Sunday markets, and of the injury thus done to religion.
He does not tell us plainly of their refusing to give the slaves by law^ a
single day in the year, except Sunday, for cultivating any little
ground that might be allov^^ed them, or for eking out in any other v^^ay
their meagre weekly allowance ; or when, in mere spite, they at length
suppressed the Sunday market, of their refusing to grant them by law a
single hour in lieu of Sunday for going to market. He suppresses or slurs
over all this in the masters, and imputes to the slaves all the blame of
theturbulence which the unjust suppression of the Sunday market, with-
out any equivalent, had almost of necessity produced. Hesays they broke
the Sabbath wilfully, without any necessity, merely to display their
fine clothes and sell their fruit, &c. ; while the masters, who suppressed
the Sunday market without giving time for any other, are not censured.
Will Mr. Curtin venture to affirm, on his oath, that with their miserable
allowance of food, and without a single week-day allowed them by
law, either for going to market or for cultivating their grounds, the
slaves were not driven, by sheer, stern, necessity, to violate the Sabbath
by doing both on that day ?

3. But Mr. Curtin takes upon him to state, on his oath, that time
on the Saturday, in lieu of Sunday, is now given to the Antigua slave
by law, for marketing and working in his grounds. We challenge
him to point out any such law. It is utterly untrue that any such
law has been enacted. ^ — In the same way, he insinuates that the driver
cannot now by law stimulate or punish slaves by the whip, of his own
authority. Again we say. No such law has passed in Antigua.

4. The extreme caution and reserve with which Mr. Curtin always
adverts to the delinquencies of the white class, as contrasted with his
confident assertions respecting the demerits of blacks and browns,
clearly shows the effect of thirty long years of intercourse with colonial
society, and the depth of his colonial prejudices. At first, for example,
he cannot call to mnid a single instanceof cruelty that he had ever heard
of in Antigua. Happily, however, for the colonial cause, he recollects
one such act, perpetrated, not by. a white (that of course could not be),
but by a man of colour, who not only did the cruelty, but, what was
still more impossible in the case of a white, was punished for it. — The
tendency, in short, of all this clergyman's evidence, is to exalt all the
whites, "with exceptions," and to vituperate all the browns and the
blacks, "with exceptions" also. He seems to have forgotten that while
the whites in Antigua amount scarcely to 2000, of whom more than
one in ten are paupers, the free coloured and black inhabitants are
upwards of 5000, of whom Archdeacon Parry distinctly reports, in
July, 1827 (see paper No. 204 of 1828), that "there were no free
coloured or black paupers provided for by the parish." The paupers
receiving parish relief were all white; and yet Mr. Curtin scruples not
to insimiate, for he does not venture to assert, that not only the liber-
ated Africans, but many of the free black and coloured Creoles live
by what he calls ti-^spass ; a slander for which there is no ground,
whatever, as the judicial records of Antigua will testify.

516 Report of the Corumittee of the House of Lords

5. Mr. Curtin has, moreover, the hardihood to affirm that the
magistracy of Antigua, if even they could be suspected of doing v^^rong
and neglecting their high duties, are so watched and controlled by
clergymen and medical practitioners that they would not dare to
transgress. (What control, we should be glad to know, has Mr, Cur-
tin exercised over them?) Nay, he even affirms that any man who
acts ill is amenable to the Governor, and may be cited by him to his
bar. This is melancholy !

6. In the same spirit, he assures us, that the harder the slave is
worked the better oiT he is. Indolence being his besetting sin, the
stimulus of long-continued toil, and night labour, and protracted
sleeplessness, are essential to his well-being. Crop time is the hey-
day of Negro enjoyment ; the fattening cane juice then swells out
his flaccid frame, and inspires him with unwonted vigour. Why did
he not also tell the Committee, that so kindly considerate are the
planters, and so fearful of surfeiting the luxurious slave with the
superabundance of the good things then bestowed upon them, that, to
prevent the evils of repletion, they have actually, in their parental
tenderness, made a law to cut off, in crop time, one-fifth part of the
usual allowances ? Happy slaves to be thus anxiously cared for !

7. Mr. Curtin could not recollect any instances (with one or two
exceptions) of cruel treatment of slaves in Antigua, during his thirty
years' experience ; but, being reminded of a certain dungeon of a
friend of his own, in which certain atrocities had taken place, the Rev.
gentleman, in his too eager desire to vindicate his friend, maintained
that at least his dungeon was not worse than the dungeons of others,
there being many such in Antigua. But then, whatever might pass in
the interior of these dungeons, he v/as at least able to say that they
bad the advantages of light and ventilation, so as to obviate all impu-
tation on the humanity of those who erected those places of torture, and
who had filled them with their wretched inmates.

8. But if there be evils existing in Antigua, and if slavery is to be
deemed one of them, Mr. Curtin would have them all reformed in due
time. He, too, is for emancipation, but, to suit his taste, it must be very
gradual, nayy imperceptible, in its progress. The slave must not have
the even tenor of his destiny disturbed by idle but inciting declama-
tions about whipSy and chains, and dungeons, and freedom, and such
stuff. The planters must be left to pursue their own projects of ame-
lioration, and then he has no doubt that, some fifty years hence, the
effect of their assiduous cares will be seen in some approach to fitness
for that freedom which, if rashly dealt out to them by modern
visionaries, Mr. Curtin would regard as a curse and not a blessing.

But we must nov/ take our leave of Mr. Curtin, and, after this ex-
posure of his evidence, leave him to his own reflections, and to the
admiration of all who love to contemplate bright specimens of dexterous
evasion.

11, The Lord Howard de Walden.

This Noble Lord's evidence is confined to a document which he had
extracted from some papers relating to certain items of civil and

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of Mr. Edmund Sharp. 517

ecclesiastical expenditure in Jamaica, and a summary of which will be
found in our last number^ No. 104, p. 461.

12. Rev, Jonathan Tyers Barrett, D. D.

This witness merely laid before the Committee an abstract of in-
formation taken from the reports of the Society for the Conversion of
Negro Slaves, a great part of which will be found in our preceding
volumes by refering to the Index. Those who have read our successive
numbers, or who have attended to the evidence of Mr. Wildman, in our
last number, p. 456, will not be surprised by the language the Bishop
employs in his recent correspondence with this country. — " Our in-
stitutions," he says, " are improving, and our chapels are building.
These are measures much too slow for some persons. I confess I dread
the consequences of precipitancy in a matter of such importance, and
so materially affecting the property and security of His Majesty's
subjects." In speaking of the insurrection, he is strongly impressed
with the " atrocities attending it, and the " audacity of the slaves, as
well as their duplicity and treachery towards their masters." He adds,
" Their huts are all consumed, and the hospitals and stores on every
estate are no longer open to their necessities." " The poor creatures
are sullen and desponding, and, although they have returned to work,
their behaviour is constrained and sulky, and they feel bitterly the
effect of their own misdeeds." He says little of the equally great atro-
cities of the white rebels, but only regrets "the ebullition of public
feeling" in " the destruction of many Baptist chapels." This is speak-
mg lightly of such crimes as arson, and robbery, and murderous ex-
cesses, committed in open day even by magistrates. Tfefe bishop seems
also to have yielded to the colonial prejudice against the missionaries.
For what else does he mean by alluding to the mischief alleged to have
arisen from "the perversion of Scripture, and the fatal effect produced
thereby on the minds of the Negroes?" This evil he has been trying
to counteract by printing extracts from the Homilies on rebellion,' &c.

The bishop has under him in the whole diocese of Jamaica, includ-
ing the Bahamas, 28 catechists. — But what are they among so many?

13. Mr. Edmund Sharp.

Mr. Sharp lived jin Jamaica from 1811 to 1832, and had been a
book-keeper two years, and an overseer a:fterwards on various estates,
having on them from 150 to 600 slaves. He has no property there him-
self. He had observed the following improvements of late : — 1st.
Slave evidence was allowed against fr-ee persons, though, he admitted,
so recently that no instance of its operation had come under his ob-
servation. 2nd. Marriage was allowed, but with the owner's sanction.
3rd. The separation of families was forbidden.* Plantation labour com-
menced at sunrise and continued to sunset,t with intervals of two hours
and a half. The hardest work is digging cane-holes, but it is not so hard

* This, however, is a mistake. The law is just in the same defective state
as ever.

t The law says, from five in the morning till seven at night.

518 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

as coal-heaving; 70 cane-holes is a day's work for an able man or
woman. When dug by task the slave saves time, sometimes two or
three hours, with which he does what he pleases. The other work of
an estate is comparatively light. In crop-time about 26 persons are
employed about the works, so that 52 are required for keeping spell,
dividing the night between them. Those who keep spell at night leave
the field half an hour before the others. On strong-handed estates,
affording three spells, the night labour is lighter, and one spell rests
the whole of every alternate night. He considers 26 days in the year,
with occasional reasonable additions, sufficient for cultivating their
grounds ; he does not say whether with or without Sunday labour.
The slave seldom has to resort to his master's store for food if he pro-
perly employs his own time. His property is his own to sell, or will,
as he pleases. Mr, Sharp's remarks on population partake of all the
hackneyed and mistaken notions of the colonists on that subject, and
may be fairly thrown aside as unsound both in fact and argument.
Mr. Sharp finds it difficult to decide when the slave will be fit for
emancipation ; but he is quite sure he will not work when free beyond
his own few immediate wants. The condition of the slaves is much
improved, Mr. Sharp thinks, of late years ; but here he blunders in
confounding law with practice. Catechists are occasionally employed
to teach the slaves, but he does not specify what is taught, or how
much time is given to instruction. The slaves were improving in dis-
position, but they have been unhinged by late events. They now look
to emancipation as leading to a life of idleness, free from all restraint.
Emancipation in their present state would lead to all excess, and pro-
perty and life^iould be insecure. The African dreads it as a subjec-
tion of the weak to the strong, and the old and young would be-
come destitute ;* and the property of the planters, without labourers,
would become valueless. f Nine hours a day, prescribed by the Order
in Council, is too limited for the manufacture of sugar. J Sending out
two pair of shoes would be ruinous. § The matter of food should be
left to the kindly feelings of planters, who must be the best judges. ||
Immediate emancipation would be the greatest misfortune that could
befal the slaves (p. 779—781).

Mr. Sharp had known free men cultivate coffee, never sugar. The
free man would not degrade himself by labouring with the slave. If
all were free, still they would not labour in the field ; and this he in-
ferred from no free man ever having done it. On coffee planta-
tions, free men, he says, work with their own slaves. Yet he does not
believe the free would cultivate the ground for hire in any case. Free

* And yet nothing is more certain than that even now, in a state of slavery,
the old and young are not maintained by the masters, but by the slaves.

t What, then, is to become of the labourers ? Are they to die of freedom?

X Mr. Sharp makes the present labour out of crop to be only nine hours and a
lialf, and the Order in Council does not forbid the planter to hire night labour.

§ Why send them out ? Are there no hides in the island ?

II Unfortunately this is a bad dependence, as is proved by experience ; witness
the Leeward Islands (above, p. 514).

on Colojiial Slavery. — Evidetice of A. G. Dignutn, Esq. 519

men sometimes cultivate sugar canes for their hogs. The lands of the
Negroes are generally well cultivated. On good soil 26 days are
enough; not on bad soil. Poor soils will not yield enough by 26 days'
cultivation. Some cultivate on Sundays and at their dinner hours.
The punishments he inflicted were rare, and with switches, not with the
whip. The whip in the field, he thinks, may be abolished ; he has
done without it himself, and substituted solitary confinement, and the
stocks, and switches which draw blood but do not leave marks ; they
are inflicted on the posteriors of men and women, and on both by the
hands of men (p. 782—786).

The hogs of slaves were shot when they got into the cane pieces
(p. 786).

Many free people lived about the estates he managed ; some were
mechanics, and some cultivated land, if they could get it, raising food
for themselves, and growing cocoa, arrow-root, &c. ; but he had never
seen them acquire much property beyond that. Many slaves acquire
property, not only by cultivation, but by raising hogs and poultry. A
slave of Mr. Mitchell's, on Bushy Park, a mason, who built the works
there, had slaves of his own, and possessed some houses in Spanish
Town : he treated his own slaves kindly, as far as he knew (p. 787, 788).

Mr. Sharp admitted that slaves working at task-work were much
more industrious, that they might gain time; but did not believe, not-
withstanding this, that they would work for wages. The book-keepers
and overseers are bound to inspect the Negro grounds, for they make
a return on oath every three months. The return is made and sworn
to, but the grounds are not always inspected. There are few proprietors
in Jamaica ; therefore the slaves cannot be attached to them : their
attachment to an overseer depends on circumstances (p. 789, 790).

Mr. Sharp is, on the whole, the fairest colonial witness we have
met with.

14. Andreav Graham Dignum, Esq.

The evidence of this gentleman before the House of Commons will
be found in our last number (104, at p. 440 — 442). That given before
the House of Lords hardly differs from it, and need not be re-stated.
He tells the same absurd story, with embellishments, of his going, at
the head of an armed party, into a Negro village, and having a dis-
claimer from them of any wish for freedom. Mr. Dignum's credulity
is the most absurd part of this absurd story and of the sweeping in-
ference he draws from it. It may be useful to give Mr. Dignum's
explanation to the slaves of what he meant by freedom, and which,
doubtless, is the orthodox colonial doctrine on the subject. The fol-
lowing dialogue takes place between him and Timothy, the head driver,
an intelligent man. There was a great number of slaves listening to
it. " Timothy," said Mr, Dignum, " suppose your master says he will
give you free to-morrow ; — but this is not your land : you may take
your hogs and poultry with you. But, if he makes you free, you must
go and work some where for any body who will take you ; and he
must get some one in your place, and give him this house." He said.

520 Report of the Coynmittec of the House of Lords

" Ah, you hear the word the Captain say !" Mr. Dignum continued,
" Your master says you are free, and you may go away, Timothy.
You get on the road, and are very hungry, and have nothing to fill
your belly. You know that Negroes do not like to see free people
coming to their place to beg for food. You will be turned away like
a dog, as you always turn away the free people when they come to beg
of you here.' You will be driven away in the same manner. Then you
will get very sick on the road, and call for doctor. Now, Timothy,
you must recollect master will not pay for doctor. When you are his
servant, it is his interest to keep you in good health. Now you work
for him, and you have a comfortable house according to your desert."
He said, " You hear the good word the Captain say. I hope the
Captain does not suspect any one of us. We are all good people.
Massa, we no want for free ;" meaning they had no wish to be eman-
cipated.

What a driveller must Captain Dignum have appeared in the eyes
of Timothy, if he regarded this conversation as serious ! And how much
more surprised will he be if he should hear that the Captain had pro-
duced it on oath, before a Committee of the House of Lords, as a proof
that neither he nor his fellows desired their freedom ! — (p. 813.)

As for Mr. Dignum's circumstantial details respecting the evidence
taken inManchioneal, which he says showed a connection of the late in-
surrection with St. Domingo and a general ramification throughout the
island (all this being stated on mere hearsay), — together with the story of
Mr. Panton's slave having taken a letter from St. James to Manchio-
neal, and afterwards having killed himself, — there is not one syllable
of it in the examinations taken by the Jamaica Assembly, and which
have been laid on the table of Parliament. The whole, therefore, must
be regarded as a fable, as the m.ere gossip of Mr. Dignum and his
informants (p. 814—821).

Mr. Dignum understood that the sectarian chapels were destroyed
by the militia, aided by the slaves belonging to the sectarian congre-
gations ; but this he only knew from newspaper rumour. A slave of
his own had belonged to a Methodist chapel, who told him he was not
obliged to contribute money, but he nevertheless did do so. All he
knew of the bad instruction given by the sectarian missionaries was
from newspaper reports. He knev/ nothing of it himself (p. 818, 819).
And as to free men being mendicants, he only knew of that too from
hearsay, however confidently he had spoken of it (p. 820). He saw
no jealousy on the part of the slaves to his entering their houses,
though he went at the head of an armed party ; but still he thought
they would be jealovis of the visits of a protector. The appointment
of a protector, moreover, would degrade the master's authority in the
eyes of the slaves, and would breed discontents and complaints, and
do much evil (p. 824).

Mr. Dignum said that, in the late insurrection, great barbarities,
amounting to murder and rape, had been committed by the slaves, in
every instance where whites had fallen into their power, such as rip-
ping open bowels, and scalping heads, and throwing children into the

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of A. G. Dignum, Esq. 521

fire. He had heard of trials proving these facts in St James but
he had not been present at them himself* (p. 657).

Mr. Dignum did not believe there was any truth in what was said
of the attachment of slaves to the missionaries, or their regret for the
burning of the chapels ; he thought it was quite the contrary. To
prove this, he told one of his strange stories, as follows: "On my way
to the assizes, in July last, I staid a day or two with Mr. Jobson, of
Cotton Pen, in St. Ann. He told me it was very unpleasant to him —
the constant singing during the night of psalms and hymns by the
slaves; that he could not rest, and he thought it injurious to their
health. But he did not like to prevent it ; for rather than be troubled
with questions from the Colonial Office, as Mr. Bettyf was, he pre-
ferred the annoyance going on to interfering with it. On my visit
to him in March last, on my way to the assizes, I heard the gomby and
the slaves dancing to it ; and, on my making the remark that the sounds
were very different from those I heard last July, his answer was that
he had been speaking to his head driver that morning and asking him
how Methodism was going on ; his answer was, ' Massa, I am very
glad Methodism is all over, chapel down, and minister gone, for so
long as the chapel was standing and minister there we were obliged
to give our money, or we should be read out of the chapel, but now
we have our fowls and our money, and do not spend our money as
we did before, and we go to church.' While he was saying this, a
man passed, and addressed him ' Daddy,' the name he was called
among the Baptists, he being a Baptist ; he said, ' Do not call me
daddy now ; call me father,' as you used to do.' Mr. Jobson added
that since the chapel was destroyed the slaves were more cheerful, and
had their amusements of dancing and gomby, and were attending
church. He had heard complaints about losing rest by singing
psalms at late hours, ever since the missionaries had been in the
island (p. 958).

Mr. Dignum had never heard the slaves complain of the courts that
tried them. The slaves were many of them very ignorant; but it
was their feeling that they covdd obtain justice against acts of oppres-
sion, though the oppressor was their master. He does not believe
that of late the slaves are disposed to suppress their complaints from
a fear of not having redress ; but frivolous complaints have of late
been so much attended to by Government that complaints mviltiply :
and this Mr. Dignum thought a strong argument against having pro-
tectors (p. 559). There is no bias which prevents a slave obtaining
justice. He has seen, by the newspapers, of overseers being fined for
misconduct. He has heard also of many frivolous complaints being
dis.rji^sed. He had never heard of slaves being oppressed by overseers
for having made frivolous complaints to magistrates, or of their having
been punished for the evidence they may have given.

* This must also be untrue. We have seen the Jamaica newspapers and have
met with no such trials.

t See Anti-Slavery Reporter, vol. iii., No. 69, p. 431 ; and vol. iv., No. 76,
p. 130; No. 77, p. 145.

3 Y

522 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

15, James Simpson, Esq,

This gentleman's evidence was confined to one or two points, and
did not go to the same extent as in the House of Commons, He
seems to have been called chiefly to weaken, if he could, the powerful
effect of Mr, Taylor's evidence, by representing him on his oath, to the
Committee, as a weak and chimerical visionary, unworthy of attention :
an attempt, we doubt not, in which he completely failed. And he
took the occasion to declare also, on his oath, his belief that any
overseer who should be mad and profligate enough to punish a
woman for refusing to sleep with him would incur the risk of being
driven from society and punished. This, however, is quite as true
as that Mr. Taylor is a weak and chimerical visionary.

16. Mr. Edward John Wolsey.

Mr. Wolsey, a native of the United States, resided in Hayti six
months as a merchant, collecting debts for his father. He had been on
estates growing the sugar cane; but sugar is badly manufactured, from
the ignorance of the Negroes who manage the estates. The labourers
are indolent and do little, but are happy in their indolence. They
grow a great deal of coffee, which does not require much labour, but
not sugar. They trade much both with the United States and with
England. Many of the population, both black and coloured, wear
shoes. The blacks and browns do not seem to like each other. The
trade, he thought, had fallen off from the very low price of produce,
added to the indolence of the people. • They were expecting there
might be a Erench invasion, but had no fear of the result. He sav*^
much of the blacks. Reading and writing are the chief branches of
education, and music, of which they are fond, and play well. Piano-
fortes are very common among them. Music is taught by blacks. The
religion is Catholic, The proportion of the married is small ; but
their manners are not dissolute, for they maintain a kind of matri-
monial connection among all classes, high and low. They call it
placing themselves, and, though no legal ceremony takes place, they
raise and educate their children and treat them as if they were legally
married (p. 1057—1060).

Mr. Wolsey lived on a plantation which grew cane, the juice of which
was boiled into thick syrup and made into rum. The labourers worked but
little, though they were partners in the estate, every one receiving his
share. All the cultivators were partners in the produce of the estate,
but he did not know the proportions. He has, however, seen beautiful
sugar made in Hayti ; but in general they use syrup instead of sugar,
and the syrup is so thick that it does not ferment. He has not seen
any of them work hard. A few hours' labour in the day is enough
for their wants. He never knew any instance of coercion but one,
where a man was brought back to the estate, having quitted it, but he
was not flogged (p. 1061, 1062).

Mr. Wolsey was also on a cotton estate belonging to an English-
man, worked by slaves, in South Carolina. He never saw the whip
used there, though they worked indolently. Rice and tobacco are

x)n Colonial Slavery* — Evidence of W. Burge, Esq. 523

also grown by slaves. He believed very little of either would be grown
if the blacks were made free. The blacks were lazy, but it was possi-
ble the whites might be equally lazy, if they were placed in the same
situation in that hot climate. The climate enervates the system ; he
found it so himself (p. 1062, 1063).

The public works and roads in Hayti are very good, — beautiful.
The French, he believes, made them. He saw the Hayti an troops ;
they are not in a bad state ; they looked very well. He understood
there were 45,000 of them. The Hayti tobacco is very good.
Coffee, mahogany, and logwood are their chief exports. He had no
fear of insecurity in Hayti. A man may safely avow himself a Pro-
testant there. The missionaries are chiefly in towns (p. 1064,1065).

17. Thomas Williams, Esq.

Mr. Williams resided 15 years in Berbice as a planter, and left it
in May, 1832; A body of slaves, called the Winkels, chiefly arti-
ficers belonging to Government, were emancipated lately : their
number is about 300. A great many are men of very good character,
well disposed 4 some are vagrants. Most of them were educated, par-
ticulai- attention having been bestowed on them by Mr. Wray, a mis-
sionary. This, therefore, Mr. Williams thinks, is no fair experiment.
These men too are artificers. It does not follow that emancipated
persoiis will work as agricultural labourers for hire. He offered a free
■man a dollai- a day to cut canes, but he refused with disdain (p.
1066, 1063).

Mr. Williams had 370 slaves, and his estate made 500 hogsheads of
sugar. They work by task. The plough is not used : it does not
answer. No whip is carried in the field in Berbice, and having tasks
assigned it may be dispensed with. The hours of labour are from six
to six, with intervals of three hours. There are two missionaries in
Berbice, and in some places education is beginning (p. 1068, 1069).

Being asked if the Winkels had become a burden to the colony, he
said, Not so much as they will be. Freedom is a novelty to them at
present, and many of them have it in view to procure fine clothes and
luxuries, but, having obtained these, many will become indolent. He
thought only one-fourth of them would work industriously. — That is
saying, in fact, though reluctantly, that they are not burdens on the
colony, and are industrious (p. 1070).

Mr. Williams has known £500 paid for a valuable slave, a boiler,
and for a good field slave £300; but their price would now be not
more than a third,

18. William Burge, Esq.

We come now to the last remaining witness who was examined on
the pro-slavery side in the House of Lords, Mr. Burge, the late
Attorney-General of Jamaica, and now the salaried agent of that colony.
Much of this gentleman's evidence, if evidence it can be called, more
resembles the ex parte pleading of an advocate than the testimony of
a sworn witness deposing to the facts of a case; indeed, it is avowedly
a defence of his constituents as well as oi himself personally, and was

524 Report of the- Committee of the House of Lords

evidently prepared and arranged with considerable care. But we ale
willing to accept it even on these terms ; for we are far from thinking
that it has had any very great effect in bolstering up the sinking cause
of slavery, but rather has aided in its subversion.

Mr. Burge was 20 years resident in Jamaica, and is owner, by right
of his wife, of a coffee plantation in Manchester, with about 130 slaves
upon it.

Mr. Burge first produces a statement to the Committee the object
of which is to show that the property in slaves had been created by
this country. This statement contains the following heads : —

A. Origin and foundation of the African trade, and proceedings of
Government and Parliament relative thereto.*

B. Respects laws and other proceedings for the melioration of the
lave population.

C. Laws for the melioration of the free people of colour.

D. Papers relative to certain instances of maltreatm'fent of slaves^
and proceedings thereupon.

E. Papers relating to the late rebellion in Jamaica.

F. Miscellaneous papers.

All of these, with the exception of that part of the last head which
relates to the condition, in 1825, of three estates belonging to Lord
Seaford, and the list of manumissions granted in Jamaica between
1817 and Dec. 1830, are a mere transcript of papers already on the
table, and in the hands of every member, of Parliament ; and, with re-
spect to the exceptions, they are papers destitute of any adequate
authentication, the agent of Lord Seaford, whoever he may be, being
alone answerable for the one, and no responsible officer of the Crown
being answerable for the correctness of the other, as has always been
the case in every return of the same nature from other colonies. The
Jamaica returns come to us in this instance from the Assembly througls
Mr. Burge, instead of coming through the Governor to the Secretary
of State, under the official signature of the proper officer, who, we be-
lieve, is the Secretary of the island. The omission of this necessary
formality, in the case of Jamaica alone, renders the accuracy of the
document an object of some suspicion, especially as there are variations,
in the different returns which have been received from Jamaica re-
specting manumissions, which cannot be reconciled except by explana-
tions which the proper officer is alone competent to give ; and in the
case of bequests of freedom especially, dependent on conditions, no
distinct information is given as to the fulfilment of such bequests. See
papers of 1823, No. 347, and of 1826, No. 353, &c., compared with
the document now furnished by Mr. Burge.

* A part of these papers relates to the transactions of the Jamaica Assembly in
1774, on the subject of a duty which they levied on slaves imported, but which
was disapproved by the then Board of Trade. The whole turns out to be a mere
financial operation, an easy mode of replenishing the Jamaica treasury, which
the Government at home disallowed, but which had not the slightest mixture of
any philanthropic desire to lessen the horrors of that trade, or to deprive Jamaica
of what were supposed to be the advantages of its importations. It is downright
hypocrisy to refer to it in that view.

On Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of W. Burge, Esq. 525

We have so often exposed the defence again set up by Mr. Burge
for the conduct adopted by the Assembly of Jamaica, in regard to the
pretended amelioration of their slave laws, and generally of their in-
tolerant enactments in respect to religion, that we should only be
repeating vphat we have already said over and over again, even to
satiety. All we think it necessary to do, therefore, is to refer to our
former pages, viz. vol. ii., No. 29, p. 103 — 111; No. 33, p. 177 — 182;
and No. 38, p. 261—270; vol. iii., No. 65, p. 349—361 ; vol. iv.,
No. 82 ; and vol. v.. No. 93. Mr. Burge admitted that, officially, he
had never known of any pecuniary contributions to the mission fund
which were not perfectly voluntary, free-will offerings on the part of
the slaves, or that any inconvenience to the police and good government
of the island had arisen from the nightly meetings of sectarian congre-
gations (p. 968, 969).

Mr. Burge states that " the two particular clauses which caused the
act of 1826 to be rejected by his Majesty are not contained in the act
of 1831." He is then asked, " Are there clauses of a similar nature
in the law of 1831 V His reply is, " I will beg to refer your Lord-
ships to the clause itself. By the 84th clause, the practice of nightly
and other meetings is declared unlawful, and punishment inflicted on
persons attending them." Now this clause 84 in the act of 1831 cor-
responds, verbatim et literatim, with clause 88 of the act of 1826,
and has no relation whatever to the three — (not two, as Mr. Burge
asserts) — particular clauses which have been expunged from the act of
1831, viz. clauses 85, 86, and 87 of the act of 1826. Does Mr. Burge,
then, mean to say that the clause 88 of the act of 1826, which is retained
and now forms clause 84 of the act of 1831, was directed by a side
wind against religious meetings ? If so, then the proceedings of the
Assembly are still more insidious than we were disposed to believe.
Both these clauses are directed against the practice of nightly and
other private meetings of slaves. Was it meant that in the term
private meetings were to be comprehended meetings for public religious
worship with open doors? If not, then the object of his reference is
not very obvious ; because this cannot be said to be a law of " a simi-
lar nature" to the rejected clauses, which were directed exclusively to
religion. But if he does mean that the term is to be understood as com-
prehending nightly public meetings for religious worship, then we should
be at a loss for words to designate as it deserves such atrocious obli-
quity of legislation, such a fraud on the government, and parliament,
and people of England. Mr Burge, we conceive, is bound to clear
up this ambiguity, if it were only for the sake of his constituents.

Mr. Burge very dexterously suggests to their Lordships, as an apo-
logy for the existing slave legislation of Jamaica, viz. the law of 1831,
the consideration that, " if they looked merely at the written laws
which regard the condition of the slaves, they would do great injustice ;
they must enquire, not only for the written law, but the usage" (p. 970).
Now we do not deny that, if we were contemplating an enactment
which, being of ancient date, had become obsolete, and being super-
seded by usage, like the old laws against witchcraft in tnis country, had
fallen into total desuetude, the argument of Mr. Burge might be a very

526 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

fair and legitimate argument. But what would the parliament or public
of England say to a grave proposal to re-enact the statutes against
witchcraft in the year 1831 ? The charge against the Assembly of
Jamaica is not that they had formeriy enacted bad laws ; but that
being called to repeal bad laws, and having professed to employ them-
selves in a thorough I'evision of their slave code, they had deliberately,
and in direct opposition to the urgent representations of the King's
government and the unanimous voice of the British nation, determined
to re-enact them. The very apology of Mr. Burge candidly admits
the badness of the former enactments ; and yet the Assembly adhere
to them as to their very life's blood ; and are ready to dare the omni-
potence of the British parliament, in order to retain them entire on
their statute book. The laws which Mr. Burge ventures to defend —
(we commiserate the necessity he is under of doing so), — such as the
law respecting slave evidence and bequests to slaves, as well as that
respecting Sunday markets, are instances in point. They are a solemn
mockery of legislation ; and Mr. Burge must be convinced that they
are so. Let the reader look especially at those laws which he repre-
sents as the masterpieces of improved Jamaica legislation, the law on
evidence, and that on property, as they stand at p. 446 of No. 104,
and above at p. 490, and he will be satisfied on this point. They are
not laws — they are frauds in the shape of laws. So the provision for
" abolishing'" Sunday markets is, in fact, a provision for legalizing
them during a moiety of the Sunday ; and the law for securing — (see
the margin of clause 15 of the act of 1831) — bequests to slaves con-
tains the proviso " that nothing therein contained shall be deemed to
authorize the institution of any action or suit at law or in equity for
the recovery of such legacy, or to make it necessary to make any slave
a defendant to a suit in equity ;" and that even if the legatee's owner
should institute a suit for his benefit he shall first give " security for
costs."

In the same spirit Mr. Burge holds high the justice and liberality
of the Jamaica planters for not molesting their slaves in the possession
of their grounds and of any peculium they may thence raise. We are
not disposed to dispute the fact that proprietors in general, nay, we
may say almost universally, are disposed to encourage and protect their
slaves, in cultivating land and raising provisions for their own use and
that of their families, and that the very first and most essential means
of attaining this object is a reasonable degree of security to the slave
that he shall not be disturbed in the enjoyment of what he may raise.
Without this the slave would have no motive to cultivate his allotment,
and the master would in that case be forced to supply him with food,
or suffer him and his family to perish from absolute want. The
master gives him land, therefore, and time to cultivate it, not from
any feeling of humanity, but on the pure principle of commercial
economy. The clear obligation of the master is to feed the slaves.
He frees himself entirely from this indispensable and onerous obliga-
tion, by throwing the whole burden of it upon them, substituting land
and time for the food that must otherwise be supplied to them. To
abridge them of either, or of any part of the produce they raise by

o?i Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of W. Burge, Esq. 527

means of them, would be an act not only of the most atrocious pillage,
but of the most egregious folly. It would be as if a master, having
given to a slave the daily loaf he deemed adequate to his subsistence,
were then to rob him of half and apply it to his own use. We can
conceive no human beings so utterly destitute of all feeling of right as
to act on any such system. Thus far, therefore, the disclaimer of
Mr. Burge was wholly uncalled for, and he might have spared it. But
is the property of the slave therefore secure, in point either of law or
of fact ? In point of law it obviously is not. He is debarred from all
right of suit or action on account of it, not only against his master or
manager, but against any other person whatever, unless by his mas-
ter's direct intervention. But, besides this, he may at any time be
seized and incarcerated for an indefinite time, and finally sold for his
master's debts, without the power of revisiting his domicile, or taking
a single step to realize it, or to preserve it from ruin. Nay, what does
Mr. Sharp, one of Mr. Burge's own witnesses, tell us (see his evidence,
p. 786) ? When a slave's hog, he says, gets into a cane piece, " the
usual practice is that the watchman kills it." And in Berbice, before
the law of slave property was altered, as it ought to have been altered
in Jamaica, we read of a case of a manager, Mr. Luyken, who ad-
mitted that he had killed ten hogs belonging to one slave, named
Leander, and then put him in the stocks for complaining. The Fiscal
dismissed the case as one violating no law (see our vol. i. No. 5,
p. 41, and No. 16, p. 236). Numberless other cases might be stated,
where, without any direct spoliation, the property of a slave is liable
to be completely destroyed by the conduct of a manager. See the evi-
dence of Mr. Duncan, as it was given before this Committee. Take for
example also the instance of the wanton and cruel outrage committed
by Mr. Betty, the magistrate of St. Ann, on the person of Henry Wil-
liams, not only in punishing him, but sending him, by his own autho-
rity, and without trial or even the allegation of crime, to a distant
work-house, and there confining him for months under its torturing
discipline, and all this with perfect impunity to the perpetrator beyond
the expression of Lord Goderich's displeasure. Let this one case be
duly considered, and we shall at once be enabled to appreciate the inse-
curity of slave property in a state of the law such as that which Mr.
Burge so warmly eulogizes. The spoliation of the property of Henry
Williams, we admit, was not Mr. Betty's direct object, but that property
was as effectually injured as if Mr. Betty had robbed him of it with
his own hand (see Anti-slavery Reporter, vol. iii. p. 356 and 431).

Mr. Burge's statement on oath, therefore, of the effect of the 14th
clause of the Jamaica Act of 1831, as giving a legal right of property
to the slaves, is a gross misconstruction of its plain and obvious tenor.

The invidious remarks about the Colonial Office, by whomsoever
suggested, are wholly beneath notice (p. 975).

Mr. Burge takes immense pains to establish a communication
between the Colonial Office and the insurgent Negroes in Jamaica —
between Mr. Stephen, we presume, and the rebel Gardiner; for he
infers, from the confession of a man of that name, that he was ac-
quainted with the intention of Lord Goderich to recal Lord Belmore
six weeks before the despatch was sent from this country. And all this

528 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

migiity structure he founds on these words in Gardiner's confession.
Mr. Burge is evidently ashamed to quote them, he only refers to them.
" We did not think," says Gardiner, " that the king's soldiers or
sailors would fight against us. I even heard that the king had taken
away the Governor some weeks ago, and that the country was left to
ourselves ; and that Colonel Williams, who is master of plenty of slaves,
was joining in keeping back our freedom, and to get himself made the
Governor down this side. I also thought that other gertlemen who
were in other parts, and had plenty of slaves, were doing as Colonel
Williams was trying to do" (p. 1352). Now all this wretched drivel-
ling would really be below contempt but for the dark insinuation
grounded upon it in a grave and solemn tone by Mr. Burge. It shows
at least to what extremities his perverse ingenuity has reduced him in
order to fix some traitor in the Colonial Office with the guilt of ori-
ginating the Jamaica conspiracy, and of conveying, to some one from
whom Gardiner hears it, that Lord Belmore was to be taken away, and
Colonel Williams (who is he ?) named as his successor. The whole
aftair is really too ridiculous for any purpose but to show that there
exist minds capable of the fatuity of drawing such inferences from such
premises.

Mr. Burge also seems to have altogether forgotten that, supposing
the confession of Gardiner to contain any allusion to Lord Belmore's
recal, there were in the course of that and the preceding year
abundant grounds for such a rumour. The sharpness of the re-
bukes Lord B. had received in regard to his supineness in the affair
of Mr. Betty and Henry Williams, all of which were published
in Jamaica, was sufficient of itself to produce such an impression
and such a rumour. But the most extraordinary part of the case is
that Mr. Burge should think of bringing such nonsense, passing
verbally through so many different unknown channels, as evidence to
be adduced on oath before the Committee of the House of Lords. It
is importing the laughable looseness of Jamaica examinations into
England. It reminds us of the evidence in the St. Mary's plot, to
which we have adverted above.

And as for the belief of the slaves that the British Government de-
sired their freedom, and that the planters did not, but were violently
opposed to it, what was this but the truth ? — a truth which the planters,
by the violence and exaggeration of their speeches and resolutions,
during the months immediately preceding the insurrection, did all they
could (as if it had been their interest thus to delude the slaves) to
impress upon their minds, and that to an extent far beyond the
truth. This delusion was their own proper work. The fact that it
was so, is written as with a sunbeam in the pages of all the Jamaica
journals during the months of July, August, September, and October,
1831.

Mr. Burge further labours to convey to the Committee the impres-
sion that the violent conduct of the planters of Jamaica was reasonably
excited against the government in 1823 and 1824, by the belief that the
abolitionists then enjoyed the confidence, and guided the counsels, of
his Majesty's ministers. Never was any statement more untrue than
that which would represent Mr. Canning and Lord Bathurst, and Mr.

0)1 Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of W. Burge, Esq. 529

Huskisson and Mr. Wilmot Horton, as swayed by the abolitionists.
No confidence existed between them whatever. Neither in parliament
nor out of parliament was there any concord, but much disagree-
ment. The abolitionists disapproved entirely of the policy of that
administration in leaving the work of legislation to the colonies ; and
even the very measures proposed to their adoption were suggested to
ministers by the colonial club ; and so Lord Bathurst openly avowed.
In confirmation of this fact it is certain that any dissent from the minis-
terial measures of 1823 and 1824 expressed in Parliament, was not by
the West Indians, but by the abolitionists; and almost the last act of Mr.
Wilberforce's parliamentary life, which gave great umbrage to Mr. Can-
ning, and excited from him a reply of some asperity, was to declare his
utter hopelessness of any beneficial result from the plan pursued by
ministers. Mr. Canning's habits of familiar intercourse lay with West
Indians ; for example, with Lord Seaford and Lord Dudley. Lord
Bathurst's speech in the House of Lords, in 1824, was almost dictated
by Major Moody ; and Mr. Wilmot Horton's pamphlets and reviews
were put into active circulation by the colonial club, and by them
dispersed throughout the colonies. Is it not, under these circum-
stances, something too much for Mr. Burge to come before the Com-
mittee to swear to such a mis-statement? — (p. 982, 983.)

Mr. Burge gets a question put to him about his own appointment,
which gives him the opportunity of highly praising his official conduct, as
Attorney-General, and holding it up as a model of zeal and vigilance on
behalf of the slaves. When he became Attorney-General, he became,
he says, emphatically , the protector of the blacks. We pretend not to
say what Mr. Burge may have done privately, in the use of his powers,
for the redress of individual cases of cruelty. He may, for aught we
know to the contrary, have been as active, and watchful, and liberal, as
he asserts himself to have been. But we do know that he was the adviser
of the Duke of Manchester in 1823 and 1824, during which time more
acts of unrighteous oppression (and for these we refer to the records
of parliament) took place, than it were easy to enumerate. And
among them were the trials and executions in St. Mary, in which re-
volting case the Duke of Manchester distinctly says he acted on Mr.
Burge's advice. There were also the cases of trials and executions in
St. George, in Hanover, and in St. James, all marked with the same
traits of illegality, injustice, and oppression, as those of St. Mary.
There were also the cases of Lecesne, EscofFery, and Gonville, in which
Mr. Burge was a principal actor, but in which he was so signally
worsted. Of all these cases Mr. Burge was cognizant. In some of
them he took a prominent part. In all of them he was the Duke of
Manchester's law adviser ; and we feel perfectly persuaded that against
his advice the Duke would not have acted. Certainly we find nothing
in these transactions which manifests the deep interest he professes to
have taken in protecting slaves from oppression.

All the cruelties detailed in anti-slavery publications, he says, have
taken place since he quitted the island. But he had not quitted either
office or the island in 1 823 and 1 824. All the atrocities that have occur-
red since do not equal those oi" that period . The St. Mary's affair alone

530 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

would stamp an age with cruelty and injustice, to say nothing of the
others. All that Mr. Burge, therefore, states, on his oath, in praise
of his administration of the law, must give way before the broad,
the immovable facts of those cases, the evidence on all of which Mr.
Burge had seen before they were transmitted to England ; for he was
the Attorney-General at the time (p. 982, 986).

Mr. Burge proceeds to praise the magistracy of Jamaica, as persons
who would be most unjustly described as men of hardened feelings.
He thought favourably of them, as well as of the general tone of moral
and religious feeling in Jamaica (p. 986, 987). We do not admit the
competency of any man, who took the part that Mr. Burge took in the
St. Mary's trials and executions, and in the other transactions of 1823
and 1824, including Lecesne's affair, to be a witness in a matter not of
fact, but of feeling.

He swears that he believes the assembly and planters of Jamaica are
not anxious to perpetuate slavery ; they only desire the Negro's fitness
for freedom. — Mr. Taylor's views he, of course, considers as visionary
and impracticable (p. 988).

He labours hard to prove that \^\q law of Jamaica may punish an
overseer who is not able to show that he had good ground for inflicting
thirty-nine lashes, or any smaller number, on any slave, male or female,
subject to him. The attempt, with all Mr. Burge's special pleading,
is an utter failure. It is true that clauses 29, 30, 31, and 32, of the
last Act, do provide that owners or managers, nnitilating or dis-
-memhering, or wantonly or cruelly whipping, maltreating , beating,
bruising, wounding, or imprisonirig or confining without sufficient
support, or branding, any slave, shall be liable to be indicted for such
offence, and upon conviction may be punished by fine, not exceeding
£100 currency [about £70 sterling; of course the fine may be one
farthing, for there is no minimum], or imprisonment not exceeding
tioelve months, or both, for each slave so treated, with a power to
the court, in atrocious cases, if the court thinks it necessary, to
declare the slave free, and to assign to the slave when free an
annuity of £\0 ; and further empowering the slave so treated to
apply to any justice of the peace, and, if the justice is satisfied of the
truth of the complaint, he shall certify the matter to the Custos, who
shall convene a special sessions to make further enquiry ; and, if they
find the complaint well-founded, they shall certify the same to the
clerk of the peace with a view to the prosecution oftheoffender, and
bind over the offender and the witnesses to appear ; and the saidspecial
sessions shall constitute a council of protection to prosecute to effect
such offender, the parish paying the expense, if the offender cannot.
Now all this process is cumbersome enough. However, if it were effec-
tive to its object, its defect in this respect might be forgiven. But
then, that there may be no mistake as to such an enactment being
intended to interfere with the moderate and customary exercise of
plantation discipline, these four clauses are immediately followed by
another, the 33d, which is intended, most plainly and obviously, to set
masters and managers completely at rest as to any apprehension, that
they shall be liable to the penalties of the former clauses, if they do but

071 Colonial Slavery.^ — Evidence of W. Burge, Esq. 531

restrain themselves within certain prescribed limits, viz. drivers within
ten lashes, and owners, managers, or their delegates, within thirty-nine
lashes, at one time and for one offence, and shall not inflict the same
twice in one day, or until the delinquent shall have recovered from the
effects of his former ten or thirty-nine lashes. And the violation of
these restrictions may be visited summarily, on conviction before three
magistrates, by a fine of not less than £10 currency, or more than
£20, or commitment to prison for not more than ten days.

We have been thus precise, in order to show the utter fallacy of Mr.
Burge's law on this subject. The clause which restricts masters or
managers to thirty-nine lashes, and drivers to ten, does not say one word
of the offences, on the part of the slave, which must be pleaded in justifi-
cation of these licensed inflictions. He must be proved to have
exceeded the legal limit as to the number of lashes, or to have inflicted
them twice in one day, or before former stripes were healed ; other-
wise the penalty does not attach. Mr. Burge knows as well as any
man that penal statutes must be construed strictly ; and here there
is not one word, no not a single letter, which can affect any owner or
overseer, or any delegate of such, who shall (he being present) inflict,
or cause to be inflicted, with or without one reason proved or even as-
signed ; for any offence, or for no offence ; 39 lashes of the cart-whip, or of
the driver's whip, if Mr. Burge is too squeamish to endure the former
term. We may, therefore, leave Mr. Burge to his ingenious special
pleading on the subject, throwing in Mr. Dignum to aid him in mak-
ing out his argument. It is really too bad to have our common sense
insulted by such Tom-fooleries, under the name of law. Even Boyden's
case, we venture to say, is not correctly represented by Mr. Burge.
For there (we speak from recollection) not only was circumstantial evi-
dence of the strongest kind adduced against him, but there was one
free witness who directly testified to the outrage (p. 989).

Mr. Burge's opinion, which he enforces certainly with great in-
genuity as well as force, as to the unfitness of the slaves in Jamaica
for immediate emancipation, is of course just such an opinion as was
to be expected from Mr. Burge. He has done his best for his clients.
But all his efforts, if they were multiplied tenfold, will not explain,
consistently with his reasoning, the appalling and damnatory fact that
his constitiients should have renewed, in 1831, with scarcely any
material improvement, the slave law of 1816; even the seeming im.-
provements being no better than studied evasions (p. 990 — 993).

Mr. Burge evidently dislikes the missionaries. He swears that he has
not and has never had any feeling of intolerance, but he thinks it better
that religious instruction should be given by clergymen (the Bishop to
wit, and Archdeacon Pope, with his 700 slaves, and Mr. Bridges, the
master of Kitty Hilton, and Mr. Girod, &c. &c.) But one great fault
he has to find with the missionaries is their not having mixed with the
general society of the whites, and with the bar at the assizes. What
kind of missionaries must they have been to have done so ? How many
houses could they have entered where the vice of concubinage did not
obtrude itself upon them with brazen front ? ' And as for a missionary
taking part in grand night, at a Kingston or Cornwall assize, it would
have been not a little incongruous with his character. It was for Mr. B.,

532 Report of the Committee of the Hotise of Lords

and such as he, to have sought out these humble and retiring servants
of Christ, and to have given them countenance and protection. He
was struck, it seems, with the feelings of irritation that some of them
had manifested in the course of their examination in the Committee,
and he supposes it might have been modified by the turtle and Madeira
in which the prejudices of the whites had excluded them from partici-
pating. We know the potency which West Indians ascribe to good
dinners, and their fatal influence on many a member of Parliament in
relation to this question. But Mr. Burge mistakes his men. He is not
to suppose because Mr. Barry, and Mr. Duncan, and Mr. Knibb have
astonished him and their Lordships, by their manly bearing, by their
dauntless self-possession, by their powers of intelligence and observa-
tion, and shown themselves fully equal to any association even with
the noble, that it was the object of their low ambition to covet the
favour and convivial intimacy of their superiors. Their ambition took
a loftier flight. They were intent on pursuing their high and holy call-
ing. They had a mighty task committed to their trust ; — to rescue the
perishing souls of thousands from sin and eternal death ; — to break the
spiritual fetters which bound them in a still bitterer bondage than that
of the stocks and the cart- whip ; — and to raise them from the slavery of
Satan to the liberty of the sons of God. And they have done much ;
and they have already had their rich reward : and He, whose they are,
and whom they serve — He who can form a more correct judgment of
their conduct and their motives than Mr. Burge, will one day say to
them, " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you" (p. 997, 998).

Mr. Burge, while he disclaimed getting up a case for the House of
Lords, frankly and candidly admitted that he, aided by Mr. Markland,
a solicitor, had been industrious in obtaining witnesses of information
and experience to appear at their Lordship's bar (p. 1000). His suc-
cess has certainly not been signal.

He also frankly admitted that the funds of the West India Committee
were employed in repelling calumnies and misrepresentations by the pub-
lication of suitable works (p. 1001). It cannot be said that these, though
they have been costly, have been very influential.

Mr. Burge very properly, as we conceive, declined to enter on the
case of Lecesne and Escoffery (p. 1003).

He professed to take his estimate of the effects of emancipation from
the confessions of the slaves lately executed for partaking in the in-
surrection; and expressed his belief, on oath, that immediate emanci-
pation would be attended with inevitable destruction to the colony.
We trust, for the sake of Mr. Burge himself, and of his 130 slaves,
that he will prove in this a false prophet (p. 1003, 1004).

Mr. Burge affirmed also on his oath that it is certainly a fact that
there is a rooted inveteracy on the part of the slaves towards the
coloured population (p. 1004).

)Speaking of the Jamaica press, he alluded to the Watchman news-
paper, which he said, but without one word of truth in the statement,
had been set on foot by the Anti-Slavery Society. Had he been
Attorney General, he would have put it down. " My firm persuasion
is// says Mr. Burge, and certainly never was a more gross untruth

on Colonial Slavery.— Evidence of W. Burc/e, Esq. 533

uttered, either with an oath or without one, " my firm persuasion is
that the Anti-Slavery people in this country have been in the habit of
making communications to certain agents of theirs in the island of
Jamaica, and this information has been circulated among the slaves.
The mischief is done by the communication which takes place, to the
slaves themselves, from hence" (p. 1005). Again we say that this is as
gross an untruth as was ever uttered, and is totally destitute of even
the shadow of a fact on which to rest. — He seemed to think, indeed, that
they employed the leaders of the sectaries to facilitate their communi-
cations, as far more excitement had existed since missionaries had gone
out. And did he ever suppose that knowledge could be communicated
without excitement ? He must have been a very careless observer of
what has been passing, if he indulged that day-dream. No, no ;
knowledge is power in Jamaica as well as in England, and that Mr.
Burge and his constituents will know ere long. They are not the men
to arrest its march. They must consult their own safety by yielding
in time to its resistless progress.

Mr, Burge himself had been very discreet, and employed, with his
slaves, no men who professed " to preach the whole word," and who held
slavery to be incompatible with Christianity. His slaves went to church,
and were instructed by the curate, and a better-disposed and more
orderly set was nowhere to be found. They continued their work while
the overseer was on militia duty. The effects of their instruction thus
proved its beneficial tendency. He believed it possible to make them
moral and religious — good subjects, good slaves, and good Christians,
without producing that abhorrence of slavery which, it is said, they
must feel, if they ^xe properly instructed (p. 1006).

Now this is all very sound and orthodox doctrine, and we perfectly
concur in it. There fortunately was no disturbance in any part of
Manchester. Had the slaves of Mr. Burge been exposed to the trial^
we trust his care, in having them educated, would have been amply re-
warded by their peaceable and submissive demeanour. That is quite
the natural effect of religion in such circumstances ; and such was its
effect, as is abundantly proved by the evidence before the Committee, in
the case of all the slaves who were really converted by the Methodist
and Baptist missionaries, as he may see by the incontestible proofs
to that effect adduced by the missionaries. Numerous instances are given
by the missionaries, in their evidence, of religious slaves, in the very
heart of the, disturbed districts, pursuing the very same course, under
circumstances of infinitely greater difficulty, which his own slaves are
stated by him to have pursued inManchester. Andthisisas itoughttobe.
But ought no credittobe given, for this result, to the instruction of the
Methodists and Baptists, as well as to that of the curate of Manchester ?
But let him not suppose that the best-instructed pupils of either school
will decline their freedom when it is placed fairly within their reach. If
they are men and Christians, they must have learned to appreciate the
blessings of freedom. Moreover, to what, even in the disturbed dis-
tricts, is to be ascribed the little white blood that has been shed, but
to the influence of those very instructions of sectarian missionaries which
Mr. Burge and his constituents, in their thorough ignorance of the charac-
ters and motives of the men, are disposed to view with so much suspicion ?

534 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

Mr. Burge has great objections to compulsory manumission. But
we need not follow him in his reasonings upon it : they are happily
eftete (p. 1006). He is also against abolishing female flogging. He
wishes women to be liable to be flogged a little longer ; but he objects to
a direct law on the subject. In point of fact, female flogging exists to a
small extent, and it must be allowed to wear out. But how does Mr.
Burge know this ? Can he-swear that 100 women were not flogged yes-
terday, and 100 the day before ? Or can he tell how many ? To female
flogging Mr. Burge does not seem very sensitive ; but still, to propitiate
English feeling, not to spare the bared bodies of women from lace-
ration, it might be desirable to make the experiment of abolishing it
by an express law. — Neither does he think the whip in the field can be
safely abolished. — Neither would it be safe to substitute the magistrate
for the master in inflicting corporal punishment. — In short, like a du-
tiful agent, he is quite of the mind of his employers on all points of
improvement (p. 1007). With them, also, he thinks ill of Hayti, and
the Code Rural, and stipendiary magistrates. The planter-magistrates
are every thing that can be wished. The slaves confide in them
(p. 1008, 1009).

Mr. Burge then exhibits a statement of the wealth and resources of
Jamaica, which would make it appear that his constituents are the
richest, while they cry out lustily that they are the poorest, people on
earth. But all this is en regie. He then gives tables, which may be
fairly passed by, making Jamaica worth 58 millions, and the whole
West Indies worth 101 millions sterling (p. 1015 — 1034).

He then goes on to state the case of West India distress, in the
approved style of perennial wailing, and enlarges on the absurd hypo-
thesis that the happiness of the slave is intimately linked with the
prosperity of the master ; when the very reverse, as every body knows,
is the fact (p. 1036, 1037).

Mr, Burge is certain that no overseer who has been guilty of cruelty
would find employment in Jamaica. (Cruelty, of course, is a relative,
not a positive term. Mr. Burge, for example, could tolerate a little
female flogging, while there are some so squeamish as to condemn it
altogether.) — There are no cruel overseers in Jamaica, at least accord
ing to Mr. Burge's standard (p. 1038, 1039).

Mr. Burge is quite sure, in common with his constituents, although
almost every set of parochial resolutions passed, in 183F, by those
constituents, proves the contrary, that the apprehension of being
transferred to America never occurred to the Negroes, or had any
influence upon them (p. 1039).

He labours also to assure their Lordships, notwithstanding the com-
plete exposure of his views on that subject by Lord Howick in the
House of Commons, that the practice of separating families in Jamaica
has no fovmdation in law or in fact ; but all his renewed special plead-
ings on that subject serve, as it appears to us, only to confute his own
positions (p. 1040).

Mr. Burge concludes the whole of his harangue (for be it known
to our readers that Mr. Burge was not catechised like an ordinary
witness, but had the privileges of an ex parte pleader allowed him),
he winds up, we say, the whole with a pathetic peroration, appealing

on Colonial Slavery. — Evideyice of the Rev. John Barry. 535

to the commiseration of their Lordships, and supplicating for delay;
till they shall hear what certain delegates, then on their passage to
England, have to say to their Lordships ; and lest also, by their pre-
cipitancy, they shall produce a recurrence of the dreadful scenes we
have already witnessed.

We have alluded to the peculiarity of what is called the evidence of
Mr.Burge,inits being neither more nor less than the speech of an able
advocate broken by a few questions. Our mode of treating it has
therefore differed from the course we have thought it right to pursue
with other witnesses. We are not conscious, however, of having mis-
stated a single sentiment of his address, though we believe we have not
left any of his positions altogether unshaken. He is certainly a for-
midable opponent; but we are, nevertheless, so well satisfied with the
issue of this first encounter, that we look forward to a second meeting
without the slightest fear of the result.

We have now paid our respects to all the pro-slavery witnesses
whom Mr. Burge marshalled under his standard ; and we trust that
our readers will have been able to form a tolerably just appreciation
of their respective claims to credit. Our remaining task will be com-
paratively easy, while we pass in review the Anti-Slavery array which
appeared before the Committee.

ANTI-SLAVERY WITNESSES.

. Of these no less than eight were likewise examined by the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons, and their evidence has been already
analysed in our last number, viz. — Mr. Barry, Admiral Fleming, Mr.
Taylor, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Cooper, Mr. Morgan, Mr. Knibb, and Mr.
Thorpe. The evidence given by these gentlemen in both cases being
substantially the same, it would be a useless waste of time and labour
to do more than supply any additional matter which the course of
examination may have elicited in the Lords' Committee, and which
may not have been drawn out by the more limited enquiry in that of
the House of Commons. Our present abstract, therefore, will be con-
fined to what may be new in their evidence.

1. The Rev. John Barry.

This gentleman's evidence occupies from p. 341 to 352 of our
former nvmiber.

Mr. Barry was travelling, in the public coach between Kingston and
Spanish Town, with a member of the House of Assembly, who in the
course of conversation stated that he hated England, on account of
the efforts making there to deprive the colonists of their property. Mr.
Barry observed that the colonists had much cause to blame them-
selves for the part England had taken ; as they had misrepresented
facts. They had stated, for example, that the use of the cart- whip had
been abolished in Jamaica, while they all must know that it was as
much used at this day as it was forty years ago. The honourable mem-
ber admitted this, but added, "They tell lies upon us, and we are jus-
tified in telling lies too byway of defence" (p. 431).

536 Report of the Commitiee of the House of Lords

The drivers often inflicted punishment on the slaves in the absence
of the overseer. He once, in travelling, was arrested by the shrieks
of a vi^oman who was undergoing a punishment with the cat. She was
extended on the ground. She was raised up and sent to her work on
his coming up ; but she was unable to stand upright, so severely had
she been punished. He was shown a whip, and he pronounced it to be
what is called the cart-whip, the instrument commonly used. He had
seen hundreds of them (p. 433). He believed the driver's whip to be
still used on all estates except a very few where it has been abolished.
He had many and many a time seen the slaves struck, in the field,
with such a whip as that now shown to him (p. 440).

Mr. Barry produced a copy of the instructions given by the Society
at home to all their missionaries (p. 456). These warn the missionaries
generally to avoid meddling with political parties or secular disputes,
and to enforce, by precept and example, a cheerful obedience to law-
ful authority. The West Indian missionaries are particularly enjoined
to exclude from the Society all who relapse into polygamy and adultery,
and all who are idle and disorderly, or disobedient to their owners, or
who shall steal or act in any other way immorally or irreligiously. Their
only business being to promote the moral and religious improvement
of the slaves, they are not, in the least degree, in public or in private,
to interfere with their civil condition ; and they are diligently to
enforce on the slaves the apostolical injunctions — Ephes. vi. 5 — 8, and
Coloss. iii. 22 — 25. No person living in polygamy, or in concubinage,
or in promiscuous intercourse, is to be admitted into the Society. The
missionaries must take no part in civil disputes or local politics,
and they are to keep at the remotest distance from all temptation to a
secular or mercenary temper. No missionary can raise contributions
for himself, or be allowed to receive donations, except for the mission
(p. 467). A very interesting sketch is given of the state of the Wes-
leyan missions in the West Indies in 1830 (p, 461 — 466).

While Mr. Barry resided in St. Thomas in the Vale, he was sur-
rounded by coffee plantations, and he was in the habit of hearing,
almost incessantly, the sound of the whip, from morning till night. He
could not mistake the sound of the driver's whip inflicting punishment
for that of the mule driver. The regular and measured sound of the
former was not to be mistaken. No man familiar with slave proper-
ties could mistake it. The crack of the whip is so loud that it can be
heard at an immense distance. This use of the whip was so frequent
that it ceased to surprise him (p. 470, 471).

It is well known in Jamaica, Mr. Barry observed, one of those facts
indeed that everybody knows, that in many cases overseers conceal from
the inspection of surgeons severe inflictions of punishment. After the
infliction, slaves are sometimes locked up for days in a state of solitary
confinement. He fully understood this to be the case, though he
could not prove it (p. 473).

Mi. Barry believed that, among the planters of Jamaica, humanity
was the exception, not the rule.

He also believed that the slave population decreases, and this
from causes connected with slavery. The maroons increase, and the

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. John Barry. 537

free black and coloured population increase ; the decrease of the slaves
must be ascribed to causes connected with their condition. One of
these he believes to be excessive punishment. The punishments are
so severe sometimes as to occasion death. The late hours at which they
are obliged to labour, and their licentiousness, are also causes (p. 476).

Mr. Barry does not think that any laws which have been passed will
restrain men from inflicting severe and unnecessary punishment, or
secure the slaves any adequate means of redress. In very few cases,.
he is convinced, will the Negroes be willing to run the hazard of in-
curring a proprietor's or overseer's displeasure by applying for redress.
The practice of inflicting corporal punishment hardens the sensibilities
of the human heart, and magistrates who are themselves slave-holders
are deeply interested in upholding the system, and feel also the strong
influence of prejudice. He detailed several cases of oppression arising
out of the power possessed by masters and overseers to oblige female
slaves to submit to their desires, as well as cases of excessive punishment
for other causes (p 414, 415, 469, 475, 488). Another at p. 479
seems hardly credible, and, as the papers relating to it were lost, it
would have been better to withhold the details entirely.

Mr. Barry communicated a letter which he had received from Ja-
maica from a brother missionary, Mr. Bleby, dated Montego Bay, 24th
April, 1832, proving the violent excitement still existing against the
missionaries, though they had been declared innocent by the highest
authorities. Mr. Bleby writes as follows : —

"You ■will have heard through other channels of the proceedings on the north
side about the time of your leaving Jamaica, The acquittal of the Baptist mis-
sionaries was a complete triumph, and disclosed such a scene of villany and
corruption as will for ever stamp this country with disgrace and infamy. The
suborning false evidence against Mr. Burchell, and the attempt to assassinate
him after his acquittal, — the miserable mockery of justice in the cases of Gardiner
and Knibb, and all the other acts of violence and injustice perpetrated by the in-
fatuated colonists, — will tend only to unfold more fully the direful influence of
slavery qu the human mind, and subvert the wretched system thejr are intended
to support.

" The people in Trelawney seem to have become as bad as in that hot-bed of
oppression, violence, and infidelity, St. Ann's ; and a foul attempt was made
there to murder me a short time since, from which I was only delivered by the
merciful interposition of Providence" (p. 488).

" On the 6th of April a letter was brought to me which had been taken up in
the enclosure in the front of the house, evidently Written in a disguised hand by
some person who can write well, threatening me widi tar and feathers, and the
demolition of the house, unless I left the town. The letter was signed ' Mob.*
This I did not think necessary to take notice of, further than to request several of
our people to sleep in the lower part of the house as a guard the following night.
The next evening (Saturday the 7th) we had just sat down to tea, when a band
of white ruffians forced an entrance into the house, and came up stairs into the
room where we were sitting. They were nearly all armed with bludgeons.
Thinking they had the appearance of constables, I addressed myself to the two
first, and enquired what was their business with me ; they answered, they were
come to take tea with us. A number of them then seized me, and with much
abusive language, cursing me as a preaching villain, &c., forced me backwards to
the other side of the room, one of them striking me a heavy blow on the head.
One of them having brought a keg of tar into the room, several of them held me

4 A

538 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

fast against the window frame, while others covered my head, face, and breast
with tar. In the meanwhile another of the ruffians took the candle from the
table and attempted to set me on fire by applying it to my pantaloons ; but, being
frustrated in this attempt, he attempted, by putting the candle to the tar on my
breast and neckcloth, to effect my destruction ; but Mrs. Bleby, seeing his de-
sign, dashed the candle from his hand on the floor, by which means it was ex-
tinguished. By this time an alarm had been given, and several people came to
my assistance ; — the ruffians who were up stairs, hearing the scuffle below, left
me and went down stairs, and ultimately succeeded in making their escape. It
appears that in the dark several of the ruffians were mistaken by their fellows for
me and Mr. Whitehorne, the Baptist missionary, whom they expected to find
with me, and so severely beaten with their bludgeons, that one is not expected to
recover ; another has his scull fractured, one his collar-bone broken, and another
his thumb disjointed. Mrs. Bleby twice thrust herself between the assailants
and me ; tlie first time one of them seized her, and threw her with violence on
the floor, from which she is still suffering ; the second time she interfered two of
the ruffians dragged her away, and attempted to lock her up in the pantry, but
could not succeed, as she clung to them, and got out with them. The child was
lying on the sofa asleep ; but being disturbed by the noise, and beginning to cry,
one of the fellows called out, ' Throw the child through the window,' which Mrs.
Bleby prevented by snatching it up in her arms. When they were gone down
stairs, she succeeded in getting away through the back door with the child, with-
out a bonnet, and with only one shoe, having been pretty well covered with tar
in her efforts to prevent them from injuring me.

" Having made my way down into the yard, the same man who attempted to set
me on fire rushed on me, and aimed a violent blow at my head, which I avoided
by stooping. I again ran up stairs, and one of them struck at me on the stairs
with a bludgeon : but the blow, falling short of me, fell with a tremendous noise
on the stairs. I finally succeeded in making my escape over the fence at the back
of the house, and took refuge in the house of a person of colour who offered me
shelter and protection" (p. 489).

Mr. Barry was asked whether he would not have been perfectly
justified in interfering on behalf of the suffering slaves, when he wit-
nessed marked violations of the law. He replied, —

" Your Lordships must see the very delicate situation in which we were placed ;
a very strong feeling of prejudice existed against our mission, and it was our de-
sire to meet that prejudice as far as we could, and this was also the wish of our
managing Committee; if we had interfered in any degree in the circumstances to
which the question alludes, the cry would immediately have been raised by the
planters, ' Here are these missionaries interfering between the relative duties of
master and slave ;' and that wowld greatly add to the effect of the often-raised
though unfounded report, that we were agents to the Anti-Slavery Society at
home. We certainly have very frequently, under those circumstances, done
violence to our own feelings ; but we were restrained entirely by these prudential
motives" (p. 494).

The following is Mr. Barry's view of the general circumstances of
the men who fill the situation of overseers in Jamaica : —

"The men who go to Jamaica for the purpose of being overseers are generally
adventurers, who hope to improve their secular interests by that change; they are
generally men of humble character in life — men who possessed little or no in-
fluence in their own country. Any man acquainted with the general feelings and
principles of human nature must admit that there is a strong desire to govern in
the human mind — a strong tendency to the possession of authority. These men,
when introduced to properties, are, in the first instance, to a very great extent,

on Colonial Slavery . — Evidence of the Rev. John Barry. 539

debarred from all the advantages of religion and religious worship : it is not ne-
cessary for me to go into particulars to prove this ; it is well known that such is
the case throughout the whole island of Jamaica ; and of course whatever ele-
vating impulse or principle they might have previously possessed must, under
those circumstances, very soon become deteriorated ; independently of this, they
have the example of their attorneys and overseers before their eyes living in a
constant state of demoralization. While inferior officers upon the properties,
they are invested with authority over the slaves, and that authority may be im-
properly exercised, from a variety of causes; some of these, I have stated, may
be excited by a refusal of the Negress to satisfy the impure desires of the person
placed over her, and also the influence of passion and prejudice in those
men ; and I believe it will hardly be denied, that in the same proportion in
which they become inured to the infliction of corporal punishment the feelings of
humanity become benumbed and deadened. That benumbing and deadening
influence will increase in an increased proportion of the infliction of punishment,
and the co-operation of these causes I do generally assign as the reason why
we see so little humanity among the overseers generally. There may be other
causes which will operate, but these I believe to be the principal" (p. 501, 502).

The planters, Mr. Barry admitted, speak a great deal about the
amelioration of slavery, but he did not believe that they, including the
legislature, were willing to effect it. They might be more willing if a
state of amelioration did not include the information of the Negro
mind, and thus militate against the perpetuation of the system; for he
was convinced they would ever be opposed to whatever was calculated to
make inroads on the continuance of slavery. He believed the planters
and the legislature to be most decidedly anxious for the perpetuation
of slavery, and they have publicly declared their purpose to maintain
it (p. 509). The punishment of the whip is frequently aggravated by
inflicting further licks with the ebony bush, which contains a number
of small but sharp prickles (p. 512).

An overseer, Mr. Barry thinks, has the power of inflicting great per-
sonal suffering on slaves without violating the letter of the law. He
may confine a slave ; he may inflict tremendous punishment within the
legal limit of 39 lashes ; and even if he violates the law he runs no
great risk of detection, slaves being prevented by the dread of subse-
quent punishment and ill treatment from preferring complaints,
(p. 531.)

" An old lady in Spanish Town, a proprietress of slaves, was one day visited
by one of our female subordinate teachers, a most intelligent woman ; she had
previously spoken to a slave belonging to this old lady on the subject of religion ;
however, she did not think it would be prudent to allow this slave to meet in
religious society without the consent of the owner : she waited upon the owner,
and told her that she had spoken to this woman on the subject of religion, and
that she hoped she (the owner) would throw no obstacles in the way; she said,
' I certainly cannot allow her to pray (which is the general expression for reli-
gion in Jamaica) ; she is a young woman, and I must keep her to breed ;' and
that was the sole objection which the lady had to her meeting in religious
society (p. 531).

Mr. Barry states that the law does not recognize the separation of
families ; but he is inaccurate in this statement, for there is no law
which prohibits either separation by private sales, or separate levies

540 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

in execution, though if families are levied upon together, which is not
necessarily the case, they must be sold together. He adds, —

"A lady, a member of our society in Kingston, of the name of Miss Barrett,
unfortunately became indebted ; the child of a female slave was seized, I think
by the marshal ; after the seizure the woman herself came to my house. I lived
immediately opposite, and was well acquainted with the mistress, and she told Mrs.
Barry that such an act had taken place, and she hoped that the minister would in-
terfere. I was not at home, and knew nothing of it until afterwards ; the child
was sold, and I knew that woman in consequence to die of a broken heart. — I
knew another instance of the same kind in Spanish Town, though not followed
by the same effects ; it was a young man, the son of a slave woman, who was
sold from her, not by consent of the mother ; she was totally averse to it ; she
lived near our chapel yard, and was engaged in cleaning the chapel ; and I have
frequently seen her weeping bitterly on account of her loss, though the boy was
not removed to any great distance" (p. 535).

■2. Vice-Admiral C. E. Fleming,

This oflficer's evidence before the Committee of the House of Com-
mons will be found in our last number, p. 378 — 392. In his evi-
dence before the present Committee, he makes a mistake in supposing
that the use of the whip in the field was forbidden by the disallowed
act of 1826. There was no clause to that effect in that act ; a motion
indeed was made to substitute the cat for the driving whip, but it was
rejected. A whip being exhibited to him, he allows that that is the
whip generally used for punishing slaves. He had seen it applied both
to men and women when lagging behind (p. 550),

Were any one to tell him the whip was not used as a stimulus to
labour he would not believe him. He had never heard it denied
(p. 552). In other points his evidence is much the same as in the
Commons,

3. William Taylor, Esq.

Mr. Taylor's evidence before the House of Commons will be found
in our last number, p. 319 — 341.

Mr. Taylor repeated his belief that overseers have the power of
inflicting a very great degree of personal auflPering on slaves without
violating the letter of the law.

" I have known," he says, " eighteen lashes cause a degree of suffering that
was dreadful, and called for notice; but, the law having allowed thirty-nine
lashes, the parties who sought redress were completely bafHed. The case was
one of a young girl of eighteen who received eighteen lashes; it was one on
which many men felt deeply, and the chief magistrate of the parish took it up
very warmly, and the official people of the parish took it up very warmly, but the
overseer set them all at defiance by simply pointing to the statute. It was in
October 1830. The chief magistrate was Mr. Custos Maize of St. Andrew's ;
the public prosecutor of the parish was Mr.Clement ; the person offended against
was a girl, Jane, of Temple Hall; the perpetrator was Martin, the overseer of
Temple Hall. They carried the thing as far as they could do ; it went before
the Attorney General" (p. 570).

In this instance, Mr. Taylor thinks that if the overseer had violated

the letter of the law, he would have been punished. The cause

assigned for the punishment was insolence. The cause she gave was

■ a very different one, and that was believed. He had heard many

on Colonial Slavery .— Evidence of William Taylor, Esq. 541

instances of barbarous floggings ; and in mixing in West India society
you hear particular men pointed out as kind, or as savage as brutes.
A man of a harsh temper indulges his temper, and the law gives him
abundant scope to do so.

" I remember," he added, " a poor creature came to complain, thinking I
could do something for him. He stated himself to have been barbarously flogged ;
and on being stripped, which I caused him to be, his body did present a most
dreadful aspect. He was suffering at the time from disease ; he was weak in
body ; he was perfectly unfit to be punished, however flagitious his conduct
might have been. 1 told him what the law was ; that he might go before the
magistrate and exhibit his person, which of itself was abundant evidence, and
called for a council of protection ; but the man said there was no use in doing
that ; that it would end in his getting another lashing, and that he would rather
let it pass unless I would go with him, which I could not, for I was about to
embark for England. This was on Prospect Hill in St. Andrew's. I had him
inspected by old Negroes, who had witnessed these things themselves and had
suffered them, and they told me it was a dreadful punishment he had got. I am
sure he got no redress, for he determined to go home. I should doubt whether
he was alive, for he seemed in bad health ; I think he must have died some
months after. 1 do not mean to say that the flogging killed the man ; he seemed
as if he would not long live, he was in such a state of health. He was certainly
not in a condition to receive such punishment" (p. 570, 571).

" I have met with many instances of very cruel treatment, but on examining
into them there was no law to meet them, and therefore it was impossible to do
any thing. There was another case of a girl of nineteen; the only redress
her friends had was to get her manumitted ; an individual applied for her manu-
mission ; her owner, a cruel woman, I suppose did not wish to get into any
altercation with this person, and she consented to sell her, and she is now free.
She was severely flogged in the St. Andrew's workhouse, worked in the chain, and
flogged after. There was no redress for it ; I could only tell them that the mis-
tress had a legal right to do so" (p. 571).

This girl was confined to the workhouse by her mistress's sole au-
thority. This was allowed by law, and therefore the way to redress
was barred. Women and men were equally liable to be flogged, and were
constantly flogged in the St. Andrew's workhouse. Mr. Taylor saw four
or five women flogged ; they were of all ages ; one of sixteen, another
of twenty-two, another of thirty-five, and an old woman of sixty, a
grey-headed woman ; that was the only female punishment he ever
witnessed, and he never wished to witness it again. It was very
dreadful. They were made fast by means of a block and tackle they
had in the workhouse, which not only confined them, but stretched,
them— they were flogged with a cat-o'-nine-tails. He did not mean to
say that the stretching was done to add to the torture, but it did so
unavoidably. He spoke to two Negroes who were punished in that
workhouse, and they told him it was the severest part of the punish-
ments ; their expression was, that ^' they were stretched till their backs
cracked" (p. 571,572).

" On one occasion," says Mr, Taylor, " I saw two women flogged ;
I would not call it severe flogging, for it was nothing compared to the
flogging I have described in the first part of my examination; but,
riding in a remote part of the island, I came upon the spot, and saw
the punishment. I did interfere, but it was useless, for it was legal.
The individual who was employed in flogging told me, very firmly but

542 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

very respectfully, that he could not help it — he was a slave himself — he
was obliged to do it, and was acting under his orders, and those orders
were perfectly legal. I was myself a magistrate of the neighbouring
district, but I could not interfere. If one had been his mother, and
the other his sister, he would have been equally obliged to flog them.
The law makes no reservation" (p. 578).

He had heard slaves state that they were deterred from marriage by
their repugnance to seeing their wives flogged. It is the custom to
flog women as well as men in the home-yard or in the field, where their
nearest relatives may be ; and their relatives may be employed to flog
them. A driver is compelled to flog any one he is told to flog : he
has no choice (p. 581).

Mr. Taylor was asked, " Did you ever know an instance of a hole
being dug to enable the driver to place a Negro woman that was preg-
nant in the hole to flog her ?" He replied, " Yes ; I was told that by
the head driver of Papine, a man that I have every reason to believe
was respectable, a man I had very little to do with. I had been told
those stories about flogging pregnant women. My attention being-
called to the subject, I was exceedingly anxious to arrive at the truth
by asking other people, and I was determined to ask the Negroes and
overseers and book-keepers. Among others I asked this head driver
of Papine, a decent man, as I thought him, and he told me one instance
in which he had himself inflicted the punishment. The woman was
pregnant, and he told his story very clearly. This woman had been
punished in that way. What made me believe it was, — this was a
woman who had carried some complaint to Mr. Wildman ; she com-
plained of her being punished and losing her children in the womb ;
and afterwards she brought forth her children." His impression was, that
the loss of the foetus was in consequence of this. The driver told him
there was an excavation made, and she was placed in it, and he flogged
her with a whip, and afterwards, Mr .Taylor thought, with the ebony switch,
After giving them the thirty-nine, they switch them. There was another
respectable Negro upon the estate whom I examined separately. He
had not been present, but he said he believed the thing did happen,
and that during his residence on the estate those things had often
happened ; that pregnant women were often flogged ; and he believed
every woman upon the estate had been flogged over and over again.
This was before Mr. Wildman went out to Jamaica (p. 592).

Mr. Taylor admitted that much exaggeration had taken place at
public meetings held for Anti-Slavery purposes. He was asked whether
he believed it to be true, as had been said at one of those meetings,
'^ that a person had been scourged to the borders of the grave for no
other crime than worshipping his God ?" He answered, " I do believe
in Jamaica there are instances of Negroes who have been severely and
repeatedly flogged for no other reason than worshipping their God ; I
would not say to the borders of the grave ; it does not consist with my
knowledge that they have been scourged to the borders of the grave,
I do not know that they have died, in consequence of that" (p. 594).

Again —

"If you had heard it stated that the Church Union Society was organized for

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 543

two distinct objects — the demolition of places of worship and the banishment or
murder of the missionaries, would you consider that a gross exaggeration ?

" No ; from what I have heard of the proceedings in Jamaica, I should not
consider itat all an exaggeration, for I think it is borne out by facts. It was organized
since I left the country ; with the exception of one man, I do not know any of
them, and I would believe that man capable of any wickedness, I am asked
about a society of which I know nothing ; I only know the proceedings of the
society from certain imputations in the Jamaica newspapers; it was organized
since I left the country. I have read of gross outrages committed upon the per-
sons of missionaries, which certain documents and newspapers have said were
perpetrated by members of the Colonial Church Union; I have no other informa-
tion. Assuming that for truth, the inference is by no means a gross exaggeration;
but your Lordships will observe, I only gather that from the public prints" —
(p. 525).

Mr. Taylor was asked whether the newspaper called the Watchman
was not supported by the Anti-Slavery Society's principal agent there.
His reply was, " I do not know any agent of the Society there ; I never
knew any. I have often enquired for the Anti-Slavery Reporters
there, and could not procure them" (p. 609).

4. The Rev. Peter Duncais^.

The evidence of Mr. Duncan before the House of Commons Com-
mittee will be found in No. 104, p. 352 — 365. Mr. Duncan stated to
the Committee the following facts, though he himself had not often
been in situations to witness the inflictions of punishment : —

'? I have seen myself instances of very great strictness respecting the punctu-
ality of Negroes attending at the hours of labour; and I have also seen instances
of severity used when they happened to be a few minutes behind the hour.
Perhaps your Lordships will allow me to refer to one particular case : I remem-
ber once sitting in my lodgings in Manchioneal Bay, when I saw about a dozen
of females that came into the field five or ten minutes too late, and each received
a number of lashes from the driver. I have witnessed similar cases" (p. 637).

" In the year 1823 I knew of a slave driver having to flog his mother. In the
year 1827 or 1828 I knew of a married Negress having been flogged in the pre-
sence of her fellow slaves, and I believe her husband too, for it was her husband
and herself and other slaves who told me the circumstances. Merely because this
Negress would not submit to satisfy the lust of her overseer, he had flogged and
confined her for several days in the stocks. I was then in St. Thomas in the Vale.
Connected with that station, we had two places of worsliip, one in the St. An-
drew's mountains, but just on the boundaries of St. Thomas in the Vale and
St. Mary's ; a considerable number of Negroes firom Si. Mary's attended at that

place of worship ; among others there was one of the name of , from

. I was always particularly struck with her regularity in attend-
ing divine service ; I observed her absence on one or two sabbaths, and I asked
a lady what had kept her away. She said she believed Ann had got into trouble
again, poor thing; that she had been punished by the overseer, whose name was

. The name of the lady was Mrs. Lawrence; she told me that Ann

had been often punished for coming to the chapel by her former overseer, whose
name was ; but that she believed she was coming the next sab-
bath, and I should hear her statement. The next sabbath a considerable number
of Negroes from that property came to me, and among others Ann and her hus-
band. I asked her what had kept her from the chapel. She said she had beert
severely flogged ; she looked very ill ; she was scarcely able to walk. I said,
* What have you done?' She said she had done nothing, but her overseer had

544 Report of the Coynmvttee of the House of Lords

wished her to come and sleep with him. She said, ' No, Massa ; I am a mar-
ried woman, and I was married in the Church of England on the Parade at
Kingston, and I cannot do any thing of the kind.' Other Negroes told me that
they were present at a part of this conversation, and saw Ann flogged, avowedly
for that reason, and among the rest her husband; she was very severely flogged ; I
was told she got about fifty lashes, and was then put into the stocks. After she
had remained in the stocks two or three days, the overseer asked her whether she
would come and sleep with him yet. She said. No ; she was ready to do her
master's duty, but could not do any thing of that sort. He brought three or four
others, and pointed her out by way of scorn, and said, 'This is a holy woman —
this is a married woman ; she cannot come and sleep with me because she is a
Methodist, and has been married in the Church of England.' There were a con-
siderable number of Negroes with her at the time I saw her, who were witnesses
to the whole or part of these facts. The woman was in a very poor state, hardly
able to walk, in consequence of the very severe floggmg she had got, and for the
reason stated. Though I do not at present recollect any other such flagrant
instance of cruelty as that, it was no uncommon thing to me to hear that tlie
young female slaves had been flogged because they would not comply with those
wishes of their overseers" (p. 641, 642).

The Negroes had been described by one witness as happy and cheer-
ful. Mr. Duncan's opinion of that statement being asked, he said,
" I have seen some apparently happy enough ; but I do not conceive
they are all cheerful and happy^ or that cheerfulness and happiness
are very common among the slaves. As it regards punishments, I
have already observed they are generally inflicted in such a way and at
such a place that strangers have seldom the opportunity of beholding
those punishments in the act of infliction ; but I have seen some
punished myself; I have seen Negroes who have been punished scarcely
able to move ; I have also seen one or two others with their flesh most
shockingly torn. I cannot conceive how it is possible they can be
cheerful and happy" (p. 643).

The property of the slaves was generally respected ; but he had
known instances to the contrary.

" I have known Negroes complaining at least, in my hearing, in different parts
of the island, that their provision grounds had been taken from them by the over-
seer, and that they had got in lieu of them uncultivated grounds, and had to begin
all their work again ; and I have heard frequently of managers or owners injuring
the properly of a slave, by shooting his hogs or poultry, without the possibility of
their obtaining redress" (p. 645).

The means of redress to the slaves, for injuries or harsh treatment,
he believed to be extremely difficult ; and he stated the following as
one instance in proof of it : — •

"When I resided at Montego Bay, in 1829, there was a very painful case
brought to my knowledge, — an estate, either Flint River or Tryall — I think the
former; they are just contiguous; on which estate we have a number of Negroes
connected with our societies. I was informed that they had no day for several
months allowed them to work their provision grounds ; that they went to their
overseer, and he had promised them Saturday, but when the Saturday came he
ordered them to finish the remainder of the cane piece ; they refused, and
went in a body to Lucea, either on Sunday or Monday, and complained to the
magistrates that they had not had a day so long, and that their overseer had
deprived them of this Saturday. I believe they were nearly all flogged ; the
matter was perfectly notorious : the flogging began, as the person who was a

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 545

spectator informed me, about two o'clock, and continued till about five ; men
and women stripped, exposed, and flogged in the market-place : the whole of
this case is fresh in my recollection. According to the rules of our society, by
which we act in Jamaica, we are bound to censure such slaves as may disobey
their masters. There were two of the Negroes in company with tliose slaves who
went away to Lucea; and according to that rule, though a painful circumstance
to my own minJ, Iwas compelled to expel them from our society. The matter was
public, and therefore quite well known. It was not, I believe, denied that the
slaves had been refused their Saturday, nor was it ever called in question that
they had no day of their own for weeks, and perhaps months ; but because they
came away on Monday they were all tlogged" (p. 64G).

The cases of Henry Williams and Kitty Hilton were then largely
referred to. We will merely quote a passage from the conclusion of
it. Henry Williams had himself told Mr. Duncan that the sufferings
he had endured from the flogging he had received from Mr. Betty,
and his subsequent treatment in the workhouse for attending the
Methodist chapel, had broken his constitution. He feared he never
should be strong again. It was not by the magistrates that he was
flogged, but by the arbitrary will of his master, Mr. Betty ; and by the
same arbitrary will he was sent to the St. Thomas in the Vale work-
house, and that workhouse has the worst public character for severity
of any in the whole island. The treatment in the St. Thomas in the
Vale workhouse is considered to be much more rigid and severe than
in any other in Jamaica. This workhouse was not in the parish to
which he belonged ; he was in St. Ann's parish ; but he was sent to a
much greater distance, to this workhouse in St. Thomas in the Vale.
" I believe also the Rev. Mr. Bridges sent some of his Negroes to that
workhouse, and he stated it was because the discipline was more rigid
in that workhouse than in that in the parish of St. Ann. The word
discipline, as referring to slaves in Jamaica, means simply punish-
ment" (p. 651).

In neither of the cases, neither that of Henry Williams nor that of
Kitty Hilton, whom the Rev. Mr. Bridges flogged and treated so
cruelly, was any redress obtained (ibid).

The barrenness of the women in Jamaica he considered to be at-
tributable both to the severity of their labour and the looseness of
their morals (p. 652).

The whole of the parochial resolutions published in Jamaica in
1831 conveyed to the Negroes the information, in clear and unquali-
fied terms, that the government of Great Britain wished to make them
free, and that the planters were opposed to it. Mr. Duncan added,

" His Majesty has not in his dominions a people more loyal and devoted to his
person and government than the religious slaves. They revere the name of his
Majesty and of his government too ; and, as the inhabitants of Jamaica have pub-
lished to the world that His Majesty and His Majesty's government wished to
give the Negroes their freedom, this brought the matter before the Negroes in this
way : Here are the King and his government wishing to make us free ; here are
our masters will not allow it : and I am well aware, should there be a question
between the King and their masters respecting the Negroes, which side they (the
Negroes) will go to."

" I consider that the principal cause of the late insurrection has been the hasty

4 }i

546 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

and intemperate proceedings of the colonists themselves, and the violent manner
in which they have opposed the wishes of His Majesty's government from year to
year; the violent language which has been used, both in the legislature and out
of it. I cannot conceive it possible that such language could have led to any
other result. I have already intimated to your lordships the natural impression
made upon the minds of the slaves would be this : His Majesty's government
wish to ameliorate our condition, and ultimately to make us free, but that every
measure tending to tliis has been most violently opposed by the colonists, both in
and out of the legislature."

Mr. Duncan entered into considerable details respecting the perse-
cutions that had been endured by the missionaries. We need not
follow him in these details. They are sufficiently known, and are not
questioned. He enters into many details, also, to show that the op-
position of the planters is not to the sectarian missionaries alone, but
to religion itself ; and as much to clergymen of the established church
as to Wesleyans or Baptists (p. 672, 673).

He produced also some important documents in proof of his state-
ments, as to the persecution of missionaries (p. 681 — 685).

Exorbitant sums are often asked for the manumission of slaves, as
much as £300. A planter told him that a man of the name of James
Walker, on Holland estate, offered a very large sum for his freedom to

Mr. , whose answer was, " Ah, James, if you were free, you

would go to the devil. — Go to your work" — (p. 690).

Mr. Duncan has known fifty lashes avowedly given to a slave,
with a whip nearly resembling that now shown him, and equally
efficient.

"A Negro was laid down to be flogged almost under my window, when I re-
sided at Morant Bay — at least at no great distance. His master went to the
worihouse ; he came back with the supervisor, and four workhouse Negroes
came along with the master and supervisor ; two of them had whips. The
Negro man was laid down; two of the Negroes held him down, one at the feet,
and the other by the hands ; and the Negroes wlio had the whips went one to
each side of the man thus laid down and stripped. I counted either thirty-nine
or forty lashes; that was with a cart-whip — I mean what is called a cart-whip."
This was in 1821. " The Negro man received thirty-nine or forty lashes with the
whip. I observed that they still kept him down, while the two men, the
Negroes who had been flogging him, went some little distance, and came back
with tamarind switches — they are hard and flexible almost as wire — and then they
began upon him again, to flog him with those tamarind switches. I did not
count the strokes they gave with the switches ; but to the best of my knowledge
they were as many as had been given before. I observed, when the former
lashes were inflicted, the slave never uttered any thing more than a deep groan ;
but, when he came to be flogged with the tamarind switches, he shrieked most
dismally. His flesh was first lacerated with the whip, and then those small
switches gave him great pain. I would observe this is a very common course in
Jamaica ; after they have received thirty-nine or forty lashes with the whip, then
to use the tamarind switches ; the common expr-ession is, ' beating out the
bruised blood.' "

" I have seen many cases of flogging (but not very near where I happened to
be), when trEivelling through the country, especially on the sugar estates. When
I went first to the island, my attention was often arrested by the sound of the
whip, a sound very well known to those who have resided any time in Jamaica.
J have looked in the direction, and seen persons subject to punishment, and have

on Colonial Slavery — Evidence of the Rev. P. Duncan. 547

counted more lashes than the law allowed. When residing at Morant Bay, tlie
workhouse punishments I knew particularly; at that time they generally em-
ployed two Negroes for flogging; I never knew that on estates; and 1 have known
them to exceed thirty-nine lashes, or even fifty lashes, without intermission ; I
did not see them punishing, but I know that so many have been inflicted without
intermission. From the particular sound, I could judge of the instrument — a
whip something like that produced to me" (p. 696).

" I recollect, in St. Thomas in the East, a man of the name of Phelp or Philp ;
he was flogged; he told me it was for attending o meeting for prayer. After a
week or two, he came up to see me, and I desired him to sit down in the balcony
of my house ; he was not able to sit, but he leaned against a post. He after-
wards went up to the curate of the established church ; the curate told me he
had examined him, and he was most dreadfully cut up. This, I think, was about
1824. I recollect again another case, of a coloured slave, belonging to Rhine
estate; he was a tradesman; he had been flogged. 1 know it was many weeks
before he got over it. He used to walk about with his stick : he was unable to
do any thing. He told me that he got fifty lashes, and that each lash cut him.
About the same year, I recollect another case, in St. Thomas in the East, in
which I was at a property for change of air — myself with my family ; the property
belonged to a distant relation of my own. I recollect the overseer one night
threatening to flog a young Negro woman (a woman about eighteen or twenty
years of age), and I merely asked him what she had done. He told me she said
there was no pleasing Buckra ; but it was not for that, but because she had said
Aha ! (a very common mode of expression), that he would flog her" (p. 697).

" I remember another case, of a young woman coming from the workhouse at
Mcrant Bay ; she was coming over with one of her fellow slaves, who had been
sent to the workhouse with her. I did not see her flogged, but she had on an
Osnaburgh petticoat, and it was literally saturated with blood, which had been
dropping on the ground all the way along. That was during my residence in St.
Thomas in the East. After I went to Kingston, I saw persons who had been
flogged looking very ill indeed. I do not know that I can now particularise any
of them. I have seen flogging in St. Thomas in the Vale ; I have seen children
of from ten to twelve and fifteen laid down and flogged in 1827 or 1828. From
tliat station I went in 1829 and 1830 to St. James, and I saw other slaves, who
had been flogged. I have heard of others; I have heard, from a number of
slaves that came, about one young woman particularly ; her flesh was almost torn
from her body, because, as I was told, she would not sleep with the overseer" —
(p. 697).

" There is one estate, a coifee property, situate next to my house in St. Thomas
in the Vale, Mount Concord. That property is very much embarrassed. The
Negroes belonging to it have a very excellent character given them ; indeed they
bore an excellent character for many years ; but, in consequence of severe labour,
a number of those who had been the most steady, excellent, and valuable people
upon the estate actually ran away. I found two of the Negroes, members of our
society, had run away ; those people, much against my personal feeling, I was
obliged to exclude. I was well acquainted with the gentleman who was the

overseer of that property. His name was . The overseer informed me

that the case was this : that the debt of the property must be paid off, and there-
fore a considerable number of Negroes were sent out to job. I believe the

distance was between twenty and thirty miles. Mr. told me himself

it was a great hardship upon the Negroes, and the Negroes were determined they
would not put up with it any longer, and for these reasons : in the first place,
they had harder work; then, they were a week or a fortnight away from their
families at a time, and never saw them but on Sunday ; that they had no oppor-
tunity of returning to the property to which they belonged ; that their provision
grounds were at that time uncultivated ; and their allowance nothing like a com-
pensation for losing their provisions ; that they had nothing like a comfortable

548 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

house — notliing but temporary booths covered with cocoa-mit branches, on the
sides of the road, instead of tlieir comparative!)/ comfortable huts on their own
properties; therefore, as they were harder wrought, and taken away from tlieir
families, they were determined to put up with it no longer, and ran away to the
woods. The overseer told me it was very hard, and he felt it so, but that the
property was so involved ; and he thought he could clear £500 a year by this kind
of jobbing. I have known much individual suffering from slaves being taken to gaol,
where they were confined for the debt of their master. I have seen the Deputy
Marshal (or, as he is called, the Marshal's Dog), arrest Negroes, and drag them
away for miles ; and I have seen them crying and tearing themselves in the most
violent manner. I remember once a young woman, who was arrested in a house
where I happened to be at the time, on account of some debt owing to a gentle-
man by her owner. This young woman was about fifteen when she was arrested
by the Deputy Marshal; the lady in whose house she was was very much
affected, and appeared very indignant. I asked what was the matter ; she said
she h'ad heard the Negro state there would be a fine prize at night for the gaol.
* Now,' says she, mentioning the name, ' this is a girl, though she does not be-
long to me, whom I have brought up as my own child ; she has been religiously
instructed, and can read the Scriptures ; she is going at night to get into thy
fangs of one of those villains that belong to the gaol, and he will make her his
temporary wife ; that is a common case with the young Negro women about her
age, when they are cast into gaol for the debts of their owners.' I was present
at the time, and if I had not assisted to redeem the girl, she would have been
taken to the gaol. There was another case, of a young lad, about fifteen years
of age I should suppose ; he belonged to a property which was very considerably
involved ; he was a very decent young man ; there was also the mother of this
lad, with about seven children ; they were a very comfortable family, and re-
ligiously instructed and well taken care of: this lad was seized and was taken to
gaol, and kept there for some time ; then sold and separated thirty or forty miles
from where he had been brought up, and where the other branches of his family
were. This I slate from personal knowledge, that he was removed from his
mother and brothers and sisters. I have also, in visiting the gaols, seen re-
spectable Negroes, or at least apparently respectable quiet-looking people ; I
have asked what they were there for : I was told for their master's debt. They
had been confined a longer or a shorter time" (p. 700,^ 701).

5. The Rev. Thomas Morgan.

The evidence of this missionary before the Committee of the House
of Commons will be found at pages 391 and 39'2 of No. 104.

Mr. Morgan is asked, " Have you heard or known of an instance of
Negroes being addicted to vindictiveness and cruelty ?" His reply is,
" When I was in Antigua, there was a member of our society executed
for murdering his overseer, but it was in consequence of the overseer
debauching his wife." He knew of none in Jamaica (p. 712). He
tfiought the slaves remarkable for their attachment to those who
treated them kindly. He believed that, in regard to missionaries,,
the Negroes were disposed to lay down life for theiu ; and he had wit-
nessed many instances in regard to their owners also, when treated
with any thing like kindness (ibid).

He considered the distress of the planter to arise mainly from
slavery itself. It was founded on wrong. It was an iniquity calling
he. feared, for the judgment of heaven (pp. 713, 714).

If slaves were emancipated, he believed the parents woud be eager

On Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knibb. 549

to have their children instructed, and would pay for their instruction.
On plantations children go to work at five years of age (p. 715).

He has seen the slaves beaten in the field with the cart-whip, the
same kind of whip now shown, only the handle not quite so long
(p. 717). _ ,

If the slaves were emancipated, there would still be law, of course,
to restrain them ; and in proportion as religious influence extended
among them there v/ould be peace and order (p. 718).

He always commended the slaves for attending to religious worship,
and where there was any failure of attendance urged them to it. He
considered neither himself nor them as breaking any law in pressing this
duty upon them, whatever the wish of their masters might be (p. 720).

6. The Rev. William Knibb.

The evidence of this missionary before the House of Commons'
Committee is contained at pages 392 — 405 of No. 1 04,

Our readers will recollect how roughly Mr. Knibb was handled in
that Committee, and particularly how it was attempted to falsify his
testimony as to the confidence reposed in him by Mr. Miller, the custos,
in respect to the examination of the Negro insurgents, who were under
sentence of death, particularly in the evidence of Mr. Baker and
Mr. Dignum (see Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 104, pp. 339, 341).
He nov,^ produced a letter from this identical Mr. Miller (who was the
attorney of Mr. Hankey's estates, and also of Lord Seaford's), addressed
to Mr. Knibb on the eve of his absenting himself, for a few months,
from Jamaica, on account of his health, and to which island he re-
turned just after the Baptist chapels had been destroyed, in February
1832. It is dated Falmouth, 12th June, 1831, and is as follows : —

" Dear Sir,

" I am sorry to find from your letter that your ministry at Rio Bueno and
Arcadia is about to cease, particularly as you have acquired the respect and
esteem of the white persons residing at Arcadia, as well as of the slaves.

" I send enclosed a note for Mr. Whitehouse, requesting him to attend at Ar-
cadia in your stead, which you will oblige me by conveying to him.

"Soon after my arrival in England I shall call on Mr. Hankey, when he will
no doubt be particular in his enquiries respecting the progress his slaves are
making in religious instruction, and in every matter which relates to their
welfare.

" Please accept my best thanks for your kind wishes on my behalf; and wishing
you the enjoyment of health and happiness," &c. (p. 738.)

Instantly on his return to Jamaica (in February, 1832, as mentioned
above), Mr. Custos Miller sent for Mr. Knibb, and had a conversa-
tion with him for two hours, in which he stated his sorrow for the
demolition of the chapels, and said the island was ruined by it (p. 738).

Lord Belmore issued a proclamation about the destruction of the
chapels, which was nugatory. No attempt was made to prosecute the
offenders, some of them magistrates, though the missionaries in their
memorial gave him the names of the whole of the magistrates and
officers of militia, whom they said they could prove to have been en-
gaged in the demolition of the chapels (p. 739).

Mr. Knibb produced to the Committee Jamaica newspapers stating

550 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

the formation of the Colonial Church Union, framed for expelling dis-
senters and screening the destroyers of their chapels, stating the day
of meeting, the proceedings and objects of the society, and the per-
sons, magistrates and others, by whom it was formed. Among the
resolutions of one of these meetings, held at Falmouth, in Trelawney,
on the 24th March 1832, and signed by the custos, James Macdonald,
who was in the chair, are the following: —

" 1st. That the representatives of this parish be instructed to support every
measure that may be brought forward in the house of assembly for preventing
the sectarians any longer being permitted to disseminate their dangerous tenets
amongst our slave population.

" 2d. That it appears from a mass of moral evidence, that the sect called Bap-
tists has been most instrumental in misleading our slave population by the incul-
cation of doctrines teaching disobedience to their masters. As Sectarianism
leads to revolution both in church and state, it behoves us to adopt means to
prevent any other than duly authorised ministers of the established churches of
England and Scotland from imparting religious instruction to the slaves ; and in
furtherance of this measure we call upon all proprietors of estates, or their attor-
neys, to put down all sectarian meetings on their respective properties.

"3d. That our magistracy should be most strongly urged to withhold, for the
future, their license to sectarian ministers and their places of worship.

" 6th. That this meeting pledges itself to operate with the other parishes in this
island in the general Colonial Church Union, for the purpose of protecting our
interests from the diabolical machinations of the anti-slavery party in England,
and their emissaries the sectarian preachers in this island" (p. 740).

As to pulling down the chapels, the Cornwall Courier, edited by
Mr. Dyer, a magistrate, contains the following passage : —

" The war now may be considered at an end. The deluded victims of sec-
tarian treachery have tried their strength, and are satisfied of their utter incapacity
for warlike operations. The ease and celerity with which they have been sub-
dued, and appalling examples, have struck a terror which will not be got the
better of; and we might anticipate a long series of peace, were it not for the
portentous events with which the political horizon of the parent state is over-
charged. There we are to expect nothing but what the most rancorous animosity,
backed by power, may inflict ; but we are happy to observe that a feeling
and spirit is aroused throughout the island which will enable the injured and
insulted inhabitants to withstand and repel the assaults of their enemies. This
has been manifested in the destruction of those dens of sedition and hypocrisy,
the sectarian chapels.

" Retribution lias been inflicted in the most speedy manner, and it has been in-
flicted by those who had a full right to do so. Society has its rights as well as
legislature. The prerogative of society is undeniable ; it is at all times greater
than that of legislature, which is dependent on it. Here is one of those instances
where the representatives were powerless, and the people have taken it in their own
hands. When we say the people, we do not mean a mob — a gang of thieves
and pickpockets, such as the happy politics of England now acknowledge as
their liege lords; but we mean the magistrates, vestrymen, and freeholders of the
island, who have been in arms to preserve their property, and who have in open
day done this thing in self-defence" (p. 741).

The Jamaica Courant of the 1st March, 1832, a paper universally .
circulated in the island, contains the following denial of the slaves
owing allegiance to the crown, but only to their masters.

" On an attentive reperusal of the governor's opening speech to the legislature.

on Colonial Slaveri/.— Evidence oj the Rev. W. Knibh. 551

we are sorry to remark, that his Excellency persists in his allusions to * the ma-
chinations which have been employed to seduce the slaves into rebellion ;* and to
talk of their allegiance ! ! and the duty they owe to their masters. The Earl of
Belmore has been long enough in Jamaica to know that the slaves owe no alle-
giance, and that the contract between their owners and the government of the
mother country provides only for their obedience to their masters; and we de-
precate the idea of inculcating npon the Negro mind the bare supposition that
the king has any control whatever over him ; and we have no doubt that to the
frequency with which such doctrines have been held out by the sectarians is
mainly to be attributed the cause of the late rebellion" (p. 741).

Mr. Knibb had heard of instances of torture being used to extort
evidence from slaves against the missionaries.

" I have," he said, ''the history of one man as he wrote itdown as soon as he had
been flogged, and I can produce that. I have heard of other cases ; and a female
told me, Miss M'Clellan,when she was taken up, she was shown the gallows, and

told, if she did not tell all that Parson had told her, she would be hung there ;

and she was asked how she would like it. I do not mean to say that I have
every word, but I have the substance of what she said.

" During our endeavours to collect witnesses, William came to a brother

missionary, and told him he was smoked with fire and brimstone a long time in

the gaol, because he would not implicate Mr. . This I was told by the

attorney who was employed to obtain evidence for our defence. I know Wil-
liam ; I was in the house when he told it, but I had my own witnesses

to examine" (p. 742).

He had known also an instance of a slave being flogged by his
master for refusing to assist in demolishing the chapels. The man had
been Mr. Knibb's own servant for two years.

" He told me that his master requested him to go and assist to pull down the
Baptist chapel ; his master lives just opposite to it; that he beat him very un-
mercifully; that he took away fifteen flag stones, with some timber, and that
these were then in his master's kitchen. He came to beg my pardon for doing
it, and I said it was not his fault. He said he was unmercifully beaten for re-
fusing to pull down the chapel ; he said this to me when I returned ; he had
been a servant of mine ; I was rather attached to the lad, and I was desirous to
purchase his freedom if I could have done it. I had heard that the boy had
been there and had taken a part in it, and he came to beg my pardon, and stated
that his master had made him do it."

The following is the statement that was enclosed in the further
memorial of the Baptist missionaries to Lord Belmore, dated 18th
April, 1832, and which they pledged themselves to substantiate: —

" During martial law the following property in which the Baptist missionaries
were entrusted was destroyed by the militia:

" A new chapel called Salter's flill, in St. James, just completed, was set on
fire by a party of the St. James militia, under the command of F. B. Gibbs,
Esq. and Captain George Gordon.

" A. private house in St. James, called Pultney, rented as a place of worship,
and a residence called Wellington, in Hanover, the property of Mr. Burchell,
were severally burnt by the militia ; and a house in Hanover, called Shepherd's
Hall, hired as a place of worship, was entered by the militia, and the pews,
furniture, and pulpit therein, belonging to Mr. Burchell, were taken out and
burnt.

" On the 8th of February last the Baptist chapel at Montego Bay was pulled
down at noon-day, by a large mob, among whom were the following magistrates
and officers of militia, most of whom were actually engaged : —

552 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

" Lieutenant-Colonel William Charles Morris, Major John Coates, Captains
Geo. Gordon, Wm. Mitchell Carr, John Cleghorne, Joseph Bowen, Benjamin
Hampton Thorpe, Magistrates. Captains Wm. Nettleton Balme, John Thaife,
Edmund Evans. Lieutenants James Gordon, Joseph Tray, Wm. Plummer,
Thomas Watson, Charles Wallace Ogle, John Henry Morris, George M'Far-
quhar Lawson, Jun. Adjutant, Henry Hunter. Ensigns William Fowle Holt,
James Coates, Wm. Gordon, Joseph Gill Jump. Alexander Campbell, Esq.,
Charles O'Conner, Esq., Wm. Keith, Esq., Magistrates. Wm. B. Popkins,
Head Constable,

"This outrage occurred within two hours after the custos, and G. M. Lawson,
colonel of the St. James regiment, and a magistrate also, had been informed that
it was about to take place, yet the parties met with no interruption in their pro-
ceedings.

" The perpetrators of this act are well known at Montego Bay ; and no diffi-
culties whatever exist in discovering the authors of the outrage.

"The governor's proclamation of the 13th February was posted about the town
of Montego Bay, but within an hour after it was torn down.

"On the 14th of March the lodgings of Mr. Burchell, a Baptist missionary-
(the indictment against whom had been that day ignored), was approached by a
mob, composed chiefly of white persons, for the purpose, as they said, of doing
him some bodily injury ; and but for the voluntary opposition offered by private
persons, all their purposes would have been effected before a magistrate came to
the spot, and during the time occupied by some of the authorities in procuring
affidavits of Mr. Burchell's danger, which they required, though they saw him
surrounded by the mob, before they would call in a military guard. Mr. Bur-
chell was obliged to quit the island for the preservation of his life.

"On the night of the 12th of February the Baptist chapel at Rio Bueno was
attacked and partially destroyed by the grenadier company of the Trelawney
regiment, dressed in their regimentals, which was stationed at Bryan Castle es-
tate, near that place ; and on the evening of the 1 8th it was burnt down.

" On the February the chapel at Stewart Town in Trelawney was partially

pulled down by some persons, also connected with the militia.

" The Baptist chapel at Falmouth had been occupied during martial law as
barracks by the St. Ann's regiment. On the 7th of February, when that corps
was about to quit the town, Mr. Isher, Mr. Gaiver, a magistrate and ensign, and
Adjutant Samuel Tucker, commanded the men to break down the chapel, and
themselves set the example, saying those were the orders' they had received. It
was completely demolished.

" While the work of destruction was proceeding information was given to
Lieutenant Thomas Tennison, of the Trelawney regiment, the officer on guard
in the town. His reply was, ' that it was no matter whether they broke it or
not ; he supposed they would set it on fire.'

" Mr. Knibb, one of the missionaries, paid a visit to Falmouth early in March.
F'or three successive nights his lodgings were stoned ; and he was cautioned by
two respectable gentlemen against venturing out in the evening, as a party had
clubbed together to tar and feather him.

" After martial law was discontinued the horses of Mr. Knibb were taken
from Falmouth by Major-General Hilton, who has till very recently retained
possession of them.

" AtLucea, on the 6th of January, Lieutenant- Colonel John Edward Payne,
and Major Richard Chambers, magistrates, and Mr. Heath, the rector, went to
Mr. Abbott, the Baptist missionary's residence, and stated that he had run away.
Mr. Payne asked if he had any letters from Burchell, and said, ' the Baptists
had tried to ruin them ; but, instead of that, the Baptists would be ruined them-
selves.'

" Mr. Chambers opened Mrs. Abbott's desk with a false key, though he was
told it was hers, and searched her letters. They locked, nailed, and sealed up

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. W. Knihb. 553

the doors and windows of the house, and used a great deal of abusive language
to Miss Dixon, who had charge of his house. Mr. Heath took away Mr. Ab-
bott's church books, which have never been returned.

"On Thursday, February 9th, in the morning, the Baptist chapel at Lucea
was destroyed. The following parties were among the perpetrators of the out-
rage : — John B. Heath, Rector, D. A. Binns, Charles Younge, Constable,

" Mr. Alex. Campbell,- of Lucea, a magistrate, was present, and did not at-
tempt to prevent it. Mr. Heath, the rector, asked a gentleman to go with him
and destroy the d -d Baptist chapel.

" Mr. Richard Chambers, on tlie evening of the same day, refused to exercise
his authority as a magistrate when Mr. Abbott's dwelling house was violently
entered by D. Binns and others, armed with hatchets, &c., for the purpose of
destroying his furniture. On this occasion a respectable female, attempting to
pi'otect Mr. Abbott's property, was struck with a horsewhip by D. Binns, who
threatened to push her down the steps if she did not go.

^'Several dozens of wine were destroyed; and several of Mr. Abbott's books
and clothes stolen.

"On Friday night, February 10th, at about ten o'clock, a number of men
rushed into the chapel at St. Ann's Bay, and violently destroyed the windows,
with part of the pews and benches, causing great alarm to the missionary and his
wife, who were residing under the same roof. The next day that missionary
brought this outrage before two of the magistrates, Messrs. Thomas Raffington
and W. S. Harker, who examined several witnesses, but afforded no adequate
protection. In consequence of being left without protection by those who had
the military force under their command, the missionary, his wife, and infant
child, were compelled to flee from their home for safety ; and on the following
Tuesday, in the forenoon, the whole building, comprising the chapel and resi-
dence, was pulled down, and the materials stolen. Among the parties engaged
in this act were Dr. George R. Stennett, and Lieutenant Henry Cox, junior,
magistrates. Captain Samuel Drake, and the head constable.

" We are informed that, on the last-mentioned day, some magistrates sent for
the boxes of the missionary to the court-house, searched them, and took out sun-
dry papers and others of their contents.

" On the 24th of February Ebeny chapel, at Hayes Savanna, in Vere, was
wilfully destroyed by fire. A day or two before, Mr. Heath, Mr. Lean Wood, a
magistrate, with another person, went and broke some of the windows of the
chapel, and took away the key.

" On Friday, the 6th of April, about ten o'clock at night, a mob of white men,
armed with swords, pistols, muskets, and bayonets, went to Mount Charles cha-
pel, in St. Andrews. In the way from the gate of the premises to the house they
met with a poor old man (a free negro), unarmed, and fell upon him with their
swords, cutting him severely in several places on his head and body, and one of
them with a bayonet stabbed him in his side.

" When they got to the house they broke open the door, and fired in at it.
Some of them broke the windows of the bed-room, forcing in the glass frames,
and shutters with such violence that the bed on which Mrs. Baylis, (the mission-
ary's wife) and her infant were lying was nearly covered with pieces of glass.
They then fired in at each of the windows, and one of the ruffians applied a candle
to one side of the room, for the purpose of setting it on fire, but it was put out.
They proceeded to break the hall window, swearing the house should be down
that night. Seeing the candle was out, one of them broke open the door of an
outhouse, saying he wanted fire, and that he would burn down the house; but,
the alarm being given, they made off.

" The chapels and places of worship at the following places have also been
destroyed : — Savanna-la-Mar and Fullersfield, Westmoreland ; Green Island,
a hired house; Brown's Town, and Ocho Rios, St. Ann's.

"On the 10th of January nine dozens of Madeira wine, which were being

4 c

5.54 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

sent from Mr. Burchell's residence inMontego Bay to him on board the ship Gar-
land Cume, were taken possession of hy Lieutenant John Henry Morris, and
have never since been restored. On the 12th the same person returned, accom-
panied by Mr. James Gordon, a magistrate, who said that, by order of Sir Wil-
loughby Cotton, he came to see what quantity of wine was remaining. They
went into the store^ counted the wine, locked up the store, and took the key
away. The key was not returned so late as the 5th of April.

" Besides the particular instances mentioned, much more of the private pro-
perty of the missionaries has been destroyed or injured during and since.

"■The loss of property sustained by the mission amounts to upwards of
20,000/. currency.

" The Jamaica Courant (understood to be the newspaper most extensively cir-
culated in this island) has endeavoured, and still endeavours, with impunity, to
excite the inhabitants to the commission of every species of outrage on the mis-
sionaries, recommending destruction of property, and even threatening life if they
remain in the island. This paper is generally (and from the almost universal
support it receives is properly) considered as the organ of the colony. Concur-
ring in opinion with the Jamaica Courant and other newspapers, many of the
inhabitants of this island have connected themselves in an association, under the
designation of ' the Colonial Church Union,' the predominant object whereof is
to procure the expulsion of all the missionaries from the island — an endeavour,
in fact. ' Englishmen have the right to abide in their own country as long as
they please, and not to be driven from it, unless by the sentence of the law ;' and
they submit that an association for such a purpose is illegal, and at variance
with the whole spirit of the British constitution.

" The first place at which this Union was set on foot was St. Ann's Bay, where,.
o.n the 1 5th of February, after the demolition of several chapels, and the pro-
mulgation of the proclamation, the following among other resolutions was passed :
" 6th. That it is expected from every member of this Union that he will lend
Iiis influence and support on all occasions to those patriots who, in behalf of the
paramount laws of society, have hazarded their personal responsibility for our
preservation from the murderous machinations of our enemies."

" The presidents of this meeting publicly announced are — Honourable Henry
CoXjCustos of St. Ann's, major-general of the militia, and member of the House
of Assembly, and James Laurence Hilton^ Esquire, a magistrate of that parish,
and also a major-general, — two of the authorities who are required by the pro-
clamation to prosecute the offenders and prevent further outrages in that parish.
'' In Spanish Town the Colonial Church Union for the county of Middlesex
was held on the 2 1 st of March, and the resolutions of all the parochial meetings
seem to have been then recognized and amalgamated. The Honourable John
Lunan, a judge of the Supreme Court of the island, custos of the precinct of St.
Catherine, and member of Assembly, was appointed president of this meeting.

" It would be an endless undertaking to enumerate all the law preservers and
justices of the peace who are members of this illegal and peace-disturbing Society;
but the missionaries cannot omit to notice that the custodes of the several parishes
of Trelawney, Manchester, and Vere have accepted the office of president in their
respective parishes. In the parish of Trelawney, one magistrate, Mr. W. Dyer,
publishes a newspaper called the ' Cornwall Courier,' in which he has repeatedly
urged that the missionaries should be tarred and feathered. An attempt was
made, on the 7th of April, to practise this on the Wesleyan missionary at Fal-
mouth ; and in the next number of that paper this act was spoken of with appro-
bation. Our eyes cannot be shut to the fact that William Dyer, editor, and
Mr. Dyer, magistrate, are one and the same person ; and it seems a little too
much to expect from human nature, that what the editor recommends and ap-
plauds the magistrate will very rigidly judge or severely punish.

" Another magistrate, Joseph Hodgson, who resided within a few doors of the
place where this disturbance occurred, was applied to for assistance ; his reply to

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. Wm. Knibh. 555

«he applicant was, that ' she had better go home, they would not hurt the minister.'
These instances of the degree of sanction which some magistrates give to the acts
of violence committed on the missionaries were adverted to in a letter addressed
to His Excellency's Secretary on the 14th instant" (p. 750 — 753).

The correspondence also which took place between the Baptist mis-
sionaries and Commodore Farquhar, who was on the Montego Bay
station, was also given in evidence by Mr. Knibb. This officer had
thought proper, in an address to the inhabitants of St. James, to
say to them, " Gentlemen, I rejoice and do most sincerely congra-
tulate you that this most unnatural rebellion (raised in a great measure
by the fanatical preaching and teaching of the sect called Baptists) is
now at an end." The missionaries wrote to him demanding an explana-
tion. He did not deign to reply to them. A second letter was written
to him renewing the demand, and intimating that the correspondence
would be laid before the Admiral and the Lords of the Admiralty. To
this he replied by his secretary, that he did not hold himself respon-
sible for any letter in the public prints which he had not ordered to be
inserted ; he had nothing to do with the steps the missionaries might take;
and he declined all further correspondence with them (p. 757 — 760).

We trust the Lords of the Admiralty will teach this commodore a
lesson he has not yet learnt ; that even missionaries have rights as
British subjects which he is bound to respect, and not to outrage, as
he has most unwarrantably done.

Mr. Knibb gave further, in evidence, copies of the confessions made
to him by the Negro convicts, in compliance with the request made to
him by Mr. Gustos Miller; and of the striking testimony in his favour
by Mr. Samuel Moulton Barrett,* the brother of the Jamaica delegate
to this country (p. 760 — 764).

There are in Jamaica many religionists among the slaves who call
themselves Baptists, but who are in no degree connected with
the Baptist missionaries, and whom it was not impossible that over-
seers, or any other ignorant persons, might confound with the mission-
aries and the slaves of their congregations. Mr. Knibb said he him-
self had a congregation of about 3000, whose contributions amounted
in the year to about £600, half of that sum being contributed by free
persons, and half by slaves. The contributions were quite voluntary,
and were quite unconnected with admission or rejection (p. 767, 768).

Mr. Knibb was not aware that reports of cruelties to slaves were
circulated in his congregation against the planters. He very seldom
heard of them.

" The slaves are by no means desirous of telling acts of cruelty ; they will
conceal them. They feel the degradation of being flogged so much, that it is
with the greatest difliculty they will tell when they have been flogged."

He therefore thinks there were a great many such cases which he
had not heard of. " Flogging is as common on the estates as eating,"
p. 768.

He was led to believe that the condition of the slaves was rendered
worse by the insurrection.

" In the disturbed districts they were obliged to work harder, at least as I was

* See a copy of this letter in the Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 101, p. 282.

556 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

informed ; I left that part of the island, for safety, as soon as I could ; but so
much being destroyed, I was credibly informed that all were obliged to work
harder, which is rather the natural result after so much property had been de-
stroyed. 1 consider that being made to work harder is severe treatment. I
was told that they were obliged to work all the Lord's day, but I did not see
that" (p. 770).

The following is a copy of the affidavit of Mr. Reaburn, a magis-
trate, respecting one Stennett, who was suborned to inform against
Mr. Burchell, and who offered, before two Montego Bay magistrates,
Messrs. Reaburn and Manderson, to swear that the information he had
given was false, and that he had been bribed to give it. They (the
magistrates) declined receiving it, and Stennett has been committed to
take his trial for the perjury.

" Personally appeared before me Thomas Reaburn, who, being duly sworn,
maketh oath and saith, that he was the non-commissioned officer on guard at the
court house on Wednesday the 22d instant ; that he was called upon by J.
Manderson, Esquire, a justice of the peace, and requested to accompany him to
the room in which Samuel Stennett and a number of prisoners were confined, as.
he, the said John Manderson, wished me to hear some confession that the said
S. Stennett was anxious to make. That this deponent together with J. M. and S.
S. went into a separate apartment, when the said S.S. was told by Mr. M. to relate
what he had to say ; he then stated that he had done wrong in swearing against
the Baptist parsons, as the statement therein contained was false and unjust.
That this deponent then asked him what motive he could have to make this de-
claration, as he must be aware he would place himself in a very strange situation.
He said he could not help it ; he wished to appease his conscience, or words ta
that effect. This deponent asked him if he had made the affidavit against Bur-
chell and Gardner when under tlie influence of fear. He said no, he was induced
to do so fi:om a promise of reward, as four gentlemen (naming them) had assured
him that he would be well thought of by the gentlemen, that he would be al-
lowed ten pounds a year from the country, and that one of the said gentlemen
would make the sum fifty. The said S. Stennett further stated, that he never
joined the Baptist Society, as a member, until Mr. B. had left the country ; that
he knew nothing of the missionaries Burchell and Gardner, and expressed his will-
ingness to make cath to what he then stated. This deponent further saith, that
he never before had any conversation with the said Samuel Stennett. So help
me God. (Signed) T. Reaburn. Sworn before me this 24th February 1832.
(Signed) William Ewart" (p. 771).

Mr. Knibb also delivered in a statement of all their baptized, in
other words, of all their communicants ; for the baptized and commu-
nicants are identical in the Baptist churches ; amounting, at 24 different
stations, to 10,838. This of course does not include enquirers (about
17,000 in number), nor persons excluded for misconduct. The
number of these was 111, of whom 69 had been restored.

Mr. Knibb further swore, that on first hearing of the rebellion, he
had felt the strongest desire, and made the very utmost efforts to
quiet it.

" I instantly warned some of our congregation. We had a chapel to open the
day before the rebellion broke out ; I rode between thirty and forty miles, and
had a free person with me, of the name of Vaughan, and went among them, and
stated that 1 understood they were going to refuse to work, and assured them
they were totally mistaken about a free paper ; and I gave an address to all the
people I had with me, and I sent my deacons to more than fifty properties ; and
not on one single estate where I sent was there any insurrection" (p. 773).

on Colonial Slavery. — Evideyice of the Rev. T. Cooper. 551

A report having reached Falmouth, on the 4th of January, 1832,
that Mr. Knibb was to be shot, the following letter was sent to him
to Montego Bay by express, signed by Mr. Barrett, a proprietor of two
estates, and a member of the Church of England, and two Presby-
terian ministers, viz. —

" My dear Sir, Falmouth, 4th January, 1832.

" It was only when we returned from Cinnamon Hill last night, that we heard
of your accusation and arrest. We deeply sympathize with you and your brethren
in your present trouble. We have heard this morning of apprehensions being
entertained for your safety, and use the utmost haste to assure you that we are
convinced you have not been either intentionally or directly guilty of creating the
present insurrection. We are prepared to repair to Montego Bay and witness to
this effect, and, as far as our knowledge goes, to your peaceable character as a
Christian and a minister.

" We are, dear Sir,

With most sincere feeling for your affliction,

- To the Rev. William Knibb, H. M. Waddell.

Montego Bay. S.M. Barrett.

George Blyth."

(p. 773.)

Mr. Knibb further swore that he made it a conscientious rule never
to talk with the slaves about emancipation, and being asked how he
reconciled that with his feeling of the impropriety of his holding
language in England which he would have thought wrong in the West
Indies, he replied —

" My duty in the West Indies was to instruct the slaves in religious matters ;
when in England, I am speaking to free people. It is my firm opinion that Chris-
tianity and slavery are entirely incompatible. I consider myself, when in Eng-
land, justified in using any language which I consider consistent with truth, and
that 1 am not responsible for where my language may go. In point of fact, I do
consider that Christianity and slavery cannot possibly be co-existent ; that is my
firm conviction."

It will be allowed by every candid reader, that the missionaries,
Mr. Barry, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Knibb, have done
themselves the very highest honour by their examination in the Com-
mittees of both Houses.

7. The Rev. Thomas Cooper.

This gentleman's evidence before the Committee of the House of
Commons stands at page 365 — 367 of No. 104.

When Mr. Cooper was in Jamaica, prior to 1821, he did not know
that there was. any school of any kind in the parish of Hanover.
There was, it is true, a charity school in that parish, of which the Rev.
Mr. Rose, the rector, was the master, and received the salary ; but
during upwards of three years that Mr. Cooper lived in that parish,
it was of no use to any one person in the world, but to Mr. Rose.
One free brown boy may have attended the school, but not a slave.
The salary was paid from the Jamaica treasury. He knew Mr. Rose

558 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

very well, and assisted him in teaching his own children, and two or
three others (p. 791, 792).

All slaves not above forty are desirous of freedom, and if made free,
he believes they would be a happy and useful peasantry. He never
knew any other stimulus applied to obtain labour from them but coer-
cion. All in Jamaica, planters, clergymen, and others, all conceived
nothing was to be done but by the whip. The free people are indus-
trious and make money. He had heard of money-making among the
slaves only as a miracle, not as a general rule. If masters resisted
emancipation, danger might follow, not otherwise. He had never heard
of free people requiring parish relief. He considered the peasantry
of this country as princes compared with the slaves (p. 795).

Planters resident in this country, he believed, knew very little of
the real condition of their slaves, or they would be the first to make
them free. He considered the supply of food to the slaves very
inadequate (p. 796).

** The field Negro received seven or eight salt herrings in the week ; at Christ-
mas, a small supply of salt fish, by way of present ; he was allowed to cultivate
land on the back parts of the estate, and I believe he was not restricted with regard
to the quantity of land ; he had to cultivate that land on a Sunday, and on the
days allowed by law, amounting to twenty-six, I think, in the year."

The Sunday too was his own, and with that employed they might
obtain enough. He did not say that they suffered in health from
want of food, but they dwindled from 410 to 393 while he was there.
The treatment was not more harsh than on other estates. There was
no cruelty for cruelty's sake. The harshness he complained of was
the every day practice. He remembered sitting at breakfast and hear-
ing the whip going at a distance. After breakfast, a young woman
came up to him and told him to look at her. She turned round, and
all across she was cut in a dreadful manner, and the blood running.
They were removing dung, and she could not keep up with the rest.
She had no idea the driver did it out of spite ; he might or he might
not (p. 799).

Mr. Robert Hibbert was the owner of that estate. On Mr. C.'s
return to England he paid Mr. H. a visit at his seat in the country,
and reported to him the state of his Negroes. He told Mr, Hibbert
that he had been invited to publish his observations on the state of
slavery, and Mr. Hibbert encouraged him to do so. His mission was
so far successful as to satisfy himself that slavery must give way before
Christian instruction, and this he wrote to Mr. Hibbert before he left
his estate. Mr. Hibbert wrote back to request him to remain on the
estate, but prohibiting him from teaching the slaves to read. Finding
he could be of no further use to the slaves, and that his situation had
thus become a sinecure, he resigned it.

Those who wish to appreciate the value of Mr. Cooper's testimony may
turn to the evidence which he gave upon it in the year 1822, soon after
his return from Jamaica, and may be seen at length — and an invaluable
document it is — in a pamphlet entitled " Negro Slavery ; or a View of
the more prominent Features of that State, and especially in Jamaica,"

on Colonial Slavery. — Evidence of the Rev. John Thorp. 559

fourth edition (printed for Hatchard), p. 36 — 55. That evidence pro-
duced a most powerful effect at the time ; and was, in fact, the pre-
cursor of all the Anti-Slavery efforts which have since been made.

8. Rev. John Thorp.

Mr. Thorp's evidence before the House of Commons' Committee
may be seen at p. 370—372 of No. 104.

There were two estates in St. Thomas in the East where reading was
taught to the slaves. These belonged to Sir George Rose. Letters were
taught in the Sunday school ; but the impediments were very great, as
even the children had to attend their grounds on Sunday, and the same
children could not attend more than once in two or three months. They
had fresh slaves every Sunday. The slaves, at the same time, were
very eager to receive instruction (p. 1044).

Mr. Thorp admitted it would be very desirable that ministers of the
gospel should conciliate the esteem of the planters, only as far, how-
ever, as they could do so conscientiously. But the immoral lives of the
planters would prevent such persons from forming any very intimate
connexion with them. The connexion he formed with them was more
from his situation as the curate than from any other circumstance.
Were he to return to the colony again, he certainly should not visit them,
even to the limited extent he did when there. His reason for entertain-
ing that opinion was the decidedly immoral state of the planters, which
he thought compromises the character of a Christian, especially of a
Christian minister ; they live in open and avowed concubinage. He
knew of no exception on any estate whatever, except one, that of Sir
Henry Fitzherbert. There was scarcely another instance of an attorney
or overseer being married.

The slaves had sufficient vegetable food, but that is not enough for
hard-working slaves. The slaves, he thinks, are overworked to the
injury of health and the shortening of life, by their labour being pro-
tracted to too great length. The hours of labour by law are from five
in the morning to seven at night, with intervals of two hours and a
half, being eleven hours and a half of labour. The hours of labour are
not from sunrise to sunset, but, by law, from five to seven ; and to the
night-work of crop there is no legal limit. It makes sixteen hours
daily in some cases, and in others eighteen. The night labour of crop
is not so laborious as cane-hole digging ; but it requires not only con-
stant attendance, but constant and brisk action, and must be very la-
borious. He had heard it said that the Negroes were best off in crop;
but he could not say he had observed that. He thinks them over-
worked to the waste of life (p. 1047 — 1050).

The whip was always carried in the field ; he never saw a gang
without it. It was carried for the purpose of being used, and he has
seen it used (p. 1050).

Mr, Thorp knew the case of a slave on Serge Island estate, who
died, it was supposed, from excessive punishment. The coroner's
jury brought in their verdict, " Died of erysipelas, accelerated by the
punishment previously inflicted." The overseer, who had absconded,
was indicted ; but the grand jury ignored the bill.

560 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

The jurors on the coroner's inquest were neighbouring overseers
(p. 1054).

Emancipation, he thought, would produce an advantageous change
of system. Ploughs and cattle would be substituted for manual labour,
and the establishment of whites on estates might be reduced. At pre-
sent the plough was in very little use indeed (p. 1055).

He conceived there was no sort of artificer's work could be wanted
in the colony to which the Negroes are not equal. Not only did the
free people work in the neatest and handsomest manner, but he knew
many slave carpenters who were equal to any thing, even making
writing-desks and dressing-cases,

Mr. Thorp's belief was, that the slave population in Jamaica was
decreasing, while the free black and coloured population were in-
creasing.

9, Thomas Fowell Buxtoi?, Esq. M. P.

Mr. Buxton was the only remaining witness on the Anti-Slavery
side examined before the Committee of the House of Lords. His evi-
dence was given at considerable length, and embraced all the variety
of topics which might be supposed to have occupied the mind of so able
a leader in this great cause — such as the moral debasement and the
physical sufferings of the slaves ; the frightful waste of human life
produced by slavery ; the impediments to religious instruction ; the
religious persecutions that had taken place ; the causes and progress
of the late insurrection ; the cruelties of various kinds incident to
slavery ; the advantages of an early emancipation to masters as well
as slaves, and the dangers of delaying it ; together with a variety of
proofs, drawn from history and experience, both of the perfect safety
of such emancipation, and of the certaintyof deriving, from free labour,
an adequate supply of all the articles now grown by slave labour. It
would be evidently impossible for us to follow Mr. Buxton over this
wide field, nor is it necessary. He has it happily in his power to urge
all these fruitful topics, in his place in parliament, with much more
effect than we, by any abstract of ours, could impart to them. We
therefore desist from the attempt, being satisfied, by the proof he has
here given of his thorough mastery of the subject, that it is wholly
unnecessary.

Mr. Buxton underwent a long cross-examination respecting his po-
pulation tables and the inferences he had drawn from them ; and it
seemed clearly to appear in the result that his references were cor-
rect, and his reasonings and conclusions from the facts before him
perfectly sound. This we hope, ere long, fully to establish.

In the mean time there are two observations we have to make.
One is, that he has conceded too much to his opponents in admitting
that the age of puberty in Negro females is as early as ten ; whereas
the fact is that it is not earlier than in Europe, namely, in general
about fifteen. This is an extremely important fact to be kept in view
in estimating the childbearing ages of the slave population.

Our second observation is this, that even if we were to admit

on Colomal Slavery. — -Evidence of T. F. Buxton, Esq. 561

alsOj which we do not, that the partially selected returns which were
made the ground of his cross-examination were fair and accurate —
there would still remain one conclusive and overwhelming argument,
which no ingenuity can by any possibility evade; and that is the
argument drawn from the parallelism of the cases of the slave popu-
lation of the United States of America and of that of the British West
Indies, in that only respect on which the West Indians can for one
moment rest the shadow of an apology for the destruction of human
life attendant on their system. That argument we shall transcribe in
the words in which it appeared in a preceding number of the Anti-
Slavery Reporter, No. 100, p. 264.

"The slave trade ceased in the United States of America, and in the
British West Indies, in the very same year, namely, 1808. The re-
lative proportion of imported Africans, on which the West Indians
lay so much stress as accounting for the decrease of their slaves, not-
withstanding the boasted lenity of their treatment, must therefore
have been nearly the same in the two cases. But have the results
been the same ?

"In one of our late numbers (No. 97, p. 102) we have shown that,
in 1808, the slave population of the United States must have amounted
to about 1,130,000, and that of the British West Indies to about
800,000.

"In 1830, after an interval of 22 years, the slaves of the United
States amounted, by actual census, to 2,010,436 ; being an increase
of 880,436, or about 80 per cent, in that time.

"It appears that, in 1830, the slaves in all the British West Indies
could not exceed 695,000, being a decrease of at least 105,000 slaves
in the same period of 22 years.

"Now, had the British slaves increased, during that time, at the
same rate with the American slaves, their number, in 1830, instead of
being only 695,000, would have been 1,423,317, making the enor-
mous decrease, as compared with the progress of population in the
United States, of 728,317, a waste of life exceeding, by nearly 5 per
cent., the number of the existing population.

"A similar result would be produced by a comparison of the pro-
gress of population, among the slaves, with that of the free black and
coloured classes inhabiting the same colonies. Had they even in-
creased at the rate of the Maroons in Jamaica, the least favourably
circumstanced of those classes, the 695,000 slaves of the West Indies
would have grown, in 1830, to 1,240,000, or, if at the rate of the
free classes in Trinidad, to 1,500,000,

" These facts constitute a charge against colonial slavery which no
sophistry can elude. After every deduction which the most elaborate
ingenuity can suggest, it will remain under the stigma of being one
of the heaviest curses which afflicts humanity, and this independently
of the unnumbered political, moral, and spiritual evils which directly
flow from it. And yet here have we, with our Government, and our
parliament, in this land of Christian light and liberty, been coolly
deliberating for ten years (and still are deliberating) whether this curse,

4 D

562 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords

inflicted by ourselves on our fellow subjects, shall be at once removed,
or shall be permitted, for months or years longer, to oppress and de-
solate one of the fairest portions of the creation of God ! How long
shall we continue to endure this depressing load of conscious guilt?
Let the electors, aye, let the legislators too, of the United Kingdom, see
to it ! They are now on their trial at the bar of the Most High !"

But one of the most important portions of Mr. Buxton's evidence
remains still to be noticed — we mean the documentary part, which
is so important that any member who shall overlook it will have made
himself very imperfectly acquainted with the evidence adduced before
the Lords' Committee, We must limit ourselves, however^ at present,
to a mere catalogue raisonnee of its contents,

1. A statement of the case of Hayti, from 1789 to the present
time, with the causes and consequences of its revolution ; drawn from
authentic sources (p. 840 — 853).

2. Extracts from the minutes of the board of trade of Bengal, of
the 7th of August, 1792, on the culture of sugar by free and slave
labour (p. 856).

3. Extracts of a letter from William Fitzmaurice, Esq., on the same
subject, dated Calcutta, 5th Feb. 1793 (p. 857).

4. Extracts from Dr. Roxburgh's account of the Hindoo method of
cultivating the sugar cane, and of manufacturing sugar in the northern
provincesof India (p. 857 — 860).

5. Extract from the History of Java, by Sir T. S. Raffles, published
in 1817, on the culture of sugar by free labour in Java (p. 860).

6. Extracts from Remarks on the Husbandry and internal Com-
merce of Bengal, in 1806, relative to the Culture of Sugar (p. 861).

7. Extracts from Sir George Staunton's Account of Lord Macart-
ney's Embassy to China in 1793, on the Culture of Sugar in Cochin
China and China (p. 863).

8. Extracts from M. de Guigne's Voyages to Pekin, Manilla, &c.,
1784 to 1801, on the Culture of Sugar in China (p. 862).

9. Extracts from Mr. Abel's Narrative of a Journey in the interior
of China in 1816 and 1817, on the Culture of Sugar in China (p. 862).

10. Extracts from Barrow's Travels in China, on the Culture of
Sugar there (p. 863).

1 1 . Extracts from Crawford's History of the Indian Archipelago in
1820, on the culture of sugar there by free labour (p. 865).

12. Extracts from Mr. Botham's evidence before the Privy Council
in 1789, on the enquiry relative to the slave trade ; being on the cul-
ture of sugar, both by free and by slave labour (p. 867).

13. Extracts from the evidence taken before a Committee of the
House of Commons, engaged in enquiring into the trade of India,
showing the state of the sugar trade at Calcutta in the years 1828
and 1829 (p. 869).

14. Statement by T. F, Buxton, Esq., of the decrease of the slave
population of the sugar colonies, drawn from official returns (p.
872—881).

on Colonial Slavery. — Concluding Remarks. 563

15. Reply to the West Indian explanations of the decrease of the
slave population in the British sugar colonies (p. 891 — 893).

16. Correspondence of Viscount Goderich with the Bishop of Ja-
maica, and the Bishop's reply of the 29th August, 1831, on the state
of religion in Jamaica and its dependencies (p. 896 — 900).

17. The case of Mr, Gustos Jackson and his wife, respecting their
treatment of two female slaves, as contained in a despatch of Viscount
Goderich of the 1st November, 1831 (p. 905—908).

18. An account of the complete enfranchisement of the forfeited
Africans, and of the slaves belonging to the Grown in all the colonies,
as drawn from official and parliamentary documents (p. 921 — 924).

19. The history and the effects of emancipation in the case of
Guadaloupe, as drawn from authentic sources, and accompanied by
official documents (p. 924—929).

20. An account of the emancipation of slaves, and of the culture
of sugar by free labour, in Mexico, drawn from the official corre-
spondence of Mr. Ward, the Mexican envoy, with Mr. Ganning, and
from Mr. Ward's work on Mexico (p. 929, 930).

21. The case of the emancipation of slaves in Columbia, from
authentic sources (p. 930, 931).

22. The case of the Maroons in Jamaica, with official statements of
the progress of population among them, as compared with the sur-
rounding slave population (p. 931 — 934).

23. The question of the tendency of emancipation to produce
pauperism, as it appears in official West Indian returns, considered
(p. 934—936).

24. Comparative view of the progress of the slave and of the free
black and coloured population, in the island of Trinidad, as far as it
can be ascertained from official documents (p. 936 — 938).

25. A view of the state of free labour and its advantages, in the
Island of Trinidad, drawn from official returns (p. 938 — 940).

26. A view of the progress of the free coloured population in the
colonies of Antigua, Barbadoes, Demerara, Grenada, St. Lucia, and
Mauritius, drawn also from official returns (p. 940, 941).

27. An account of the receipts and disbursements of the Anti-
Slavery Society from its commencement in 1823, to the end of 1831
(p. 949—956).

We have now finished our task of analysing the bulky volumes which contain
the evidence on colonial slavery taken in the last session of parliament, by the com-
mittees of both houses. And, in bringing our labours to a close, we cannot deny
ourselves the pleasure of again congratulating our friends, throughout the United
Kingdom, on the results of the enquiry — results which we cannot but regard as
most triumphant.

At the close of our last number we did not hesitate to express our entire con-
viction that the abolitionists had established their case in evidence. We do so

564 Report of the Committee of the House of Lords^ 8fc. ^c.

on the present occasion, if possible, with a still more undoubting confidence.
It has been proved, with the clearness of demonstration, that colonial slavery
may be abolished forthwith, to the unspeakable advantage of the suffering slave,
and without danger either to the public peace or to the persons or property of
the master. What motive, therefore, can exist for any further delay ? What
course can now remain for a Christian Government and a Christian Parliament
to take, but to pronounce its immediate and entire extinction, accompanying the
measure by such wise and just precautions as may obviate the alarms of the most
timid ?

We put these questions at the close of our last number. Since we uttered
them, parliament has assembled, and our position is somewhat changed by what
has taken place there. In reply to Mr. Buxton, who had given notice of a mo-
tion for abolishing slavery, unless government should take the matter into their
own hands, Lord Althorp stated that it was their intention so to do, and that
he should bring before the House, as soon as it was matured, a measure which
he trusted would be both safe and satisfactory.

Of the details of this measure we can of course know nothing ; but we hail the
announcement of it with unfeigned delight; and with heart-felt gratitude to the
great Disposer of all events for this cheering indication of his favour.

It would argue an utter ignorance of the frank and manly character of Lord
Althorp to entertain the smallest doubt as to the sincerity with which this
pledge has been given, and as to its entire accordance with the purposes of His
Majesty's government. We therefore await the fuller developement of the pro-
posed plan with confidence, indeed, but yet with intense anxiety. And this we
apprehend is the feeling of the whole nation. They are looking forward, in a
state of breathless expectation, for the result; and we trust that they will not be
disappointed of their hope. The opponents of emancipation, we are well aware,
will not be inactive. They are skilled in the mechanism of imfounded alarms,
and no artifice will be spared to create such alarms. Only therefore let us be
vigilant, watching with calmness the course of events, but prepared at a moment's
notice to act with energy and decision ; and then we need not doubt that the
irreversible decree shall ere long go forth, which shall for ever efface this stain
from the national character, and give liberty to the now prostrate slave in every
corner of His Majesty's dominions. May God Almighty fulfil that expectation !

Loiiduii : S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bttrtholomew Closs.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER,

Vol. V.

Abbott, Rev. Thos., Missionary, 107,

275, 277, 278.
Abbott, Mr., Baptist Missionary, 394.
Able, Mr,, 562.
Absenteeism, Colonial, 433.
Abstract of the Lords' Report on Sla-
very, 473 — 564.
Adams, Mr. Bryan, 317, 436.
Africans, Forfeited, liberation of, 208,

563.
, Liberated, 293, 369, 370,

387, 507.
Agriculture in Slave Colonies, 180.
Althorp, Viscount, 83, 113, 134, 564.
America : See United States.
American Colonization Society, 296,

416.
Amyot, R. G., Esq., 438,462, 492.
Analysis of the Commons' Report on

Slavery', 313 — 472.
Ankle, a Slave, 132.
Annand, Mr., of Jamaica, 105, 108,

246.
Annasamy, a native of Madras, 462.
Antigua, 63, 123, 185, 209, 222, 249,

257, 293, 301, 367, 500, 502, 509,

516.

, Census of Population of, 367.

— — , Emancipated Africans in, 293.
, Progress of Population in,

249.
Anti-Slavery Committee, Resolutions

of, 292.
Anti- Slavery Society, 349, 377, 412,

414, 532, 563.

-,Charges against,

234, 245, 301,532.

-, Proceedings of

General Meeting of, 137—176.
Anti-Slavery Placards, 146.
Anti-Slavery Record, 136, 176.

Anti- Slavery Reporter, References to,

122, 339.
Arbitrary Punishments, 6, 7, 12, 67,

405, 452, 477.
Archdeckne, Mr., 499.
Austin, Rev. W. S., 316, 372.

Bahamas, 140, 219, 221, 223, 232,

260, 378, 387.

, Assembly of, 8.

Baillie, John, Esq., 474, 483.

Baker, Mr. S., 438.

Baptisms, Return of, in Jamaica, 80,

483.
Baptist Leaders, 404.
Baptist Missionaries, 107, 172, 235,

277, 351, 392, 394, 396, 399, 406,

409,412,500,551,555.
Barbadoes, 129, 163, 222, 257, 373,

374.

, Assembly of, 8.

• , Bishop of, 461.

■ . , Insurrection in, 91.

-, Progress of population in.

257.

Barbuda, 222, 311.
Barclay, Mr. Alexander, 78, 98, 99,

100, 103, 260, 265.
Barrett, Miss, of Jamaica, 540.
Barrett, Richard, Esq., 241, 278, 395.
Barrett, S. M., Esq., 282.
Barrett, Rev. Dr. J. T., 460, 475,

517.
Barroiv, Mr., on Culture of Sugar in

China, 562.
Barry, Rev. John, Missionary, 315,

341, 475, 535—540.
Barry, Mr., Member of the House of

Assembly, Jamaica, 363.
Bathurst, Lord, 8, 87, 93, 117.
Baylis, Rev. Edward, Missionary, 240.
4 E

566 INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL. V

Beaumont, Mr., of Jamaica, 54, 242,

339, 360.
Beldam, Jos., Esq., 176.
Belmore, Lord, 96, 100, 102, 108—

112, 123, 124, 214, 242.
Bengal, Culture of Sugar in, 562.
Berbke, 141, 142, 184, 197, 250, 257,

260, 523, 527.

and Demerara, Petition of

133, 136, 143—150, 152, 169, 176,
249, 284, 302, 476, 560, 562.

^ Correspondence of, with Sir

C. B. Codrington, 301.

Planters, 15.

-, Progress of population in, 250.

Bermuda, 301, 311, 387.
Betti/, Mr., of Jamaica, 130, 135.
Bindon, Mr., of Antigua, 294.
Bleby, Rev. Mr., Missionary, 239,

537.
Block and tackle, instrument of punish-
ment, 10.
Bh/th, Rev. Mr., Missionary, 399, 401.
Bolivar, 383.
Borthwick, Mr., pro-slavery lecturer,

319.
Botham, Mr., 562.
Bounties and Protecting Duties, 180,

186—188, 190,194.
Bowen, Mr. H.T.,438.
Box, Mr., Missionary, 106.
Branding of Slaves, 60.
Brazil, 182, 183, 185, 190, 194, 202,
203.

Slave Trade in, 201—203.

Bridges,Rev. Mr. of Jamaica, 71, 135,

161, 478,480,495, 545.
British Feasant, Condition of, com-
pared with that of Slave, 142, 443,
499.
Broadnax, Mr , of Virginia, 299.
Brougham, Lord, 93, 163.
Brownrigg, Mrs., 140.
Bullock, yV., Esq., 10% 110,123.
Burchell, Rev. Mr., Missionary, 277,

441, 537, 552.
Burge, W., Esq., 85, 87, 1 1 4, 1 1 7, 1 1 8,
124, 131, 160, 319, 358, 461, 475,
477, 523—535.
Burke, Mr., Attorney General of

Antigua, 510,
Burnet, Rev. John, 169—171.
Buxton, T. F., Esq., M. P., 83, 128,

Cadien, Col., 102.
Calcutta, Sugar trade of, 562.
Canada, 205, 391, 462.
Cane hole digging, 323, 325, 332, 368,
383, 418, 422, 424, 429, 459, 517.
Canning,^i, Hon. Geo., 72, 84, 87,

93,116, 119—121, 128,147.
Cape of Good Hope, Free Labour in, 5Q.
Caraccas, Slavery and Free Labour in,
&c., 381, 383—385, 387, 389, 436,
437.
Carolina, Legislature of, 133.

, South, 522.

Cart Whip, Description of, 379, 442,

481. (See Whip.)
Chains, Fetters, Collars, 10, 11, 60,

68, 443.
Chapels, Destruction of, 408, 440, 520,

549, 551.
Chase, Mr., of the Cape of Good

Hope, 56.
Children, Negro, Care of, 335.
Christianity incompatible with Slavery,
76, 148, 149, 153, 172—174, 353,
362,363,366,375,397,412, 430,
533, 557.
Christian Record of Jamaica, 76, 201,

265, 270, 339. '
Church of England, Clergymen and

Catecliists of, in Jamaica, 349.
Church Missionary Society, 221, 456.
Clare, Sir Michael, M. D., 475, 497.
Cforfoon, T., Esq., 163.
Clothing, Bedding, &c. of Slaves, 30,

65.
Coates, Major, 111.
Code Noir of France, 20, 26, 27.

Rurale of Hayti, 390.

Codrington, Sir C. B., 301, 303, 307.
Co fee. Cultivation of, 179, 185, 193,

518.
, Cultivation of, in Hayti, 522.

Cole, Sir Lowry, 8.
Collars for Slaves, 60, 68.

Complaints of Slaves, 11, 452, 495,

521,537.'
Concubinage : See Libertinism.
Conversion Society, 452, 459, 461,

500, 517.
Cooper, Rev. T., 315, 365, 366, 476,

557.
Cornwall Courier, Jamaica, 107, 280,

550.
Corporal punishments, 440, 446, 495,

519.
Cotton, Cultivation of, 202.
Cotton, Sir Willoughby, 104, 106—

108, 243, 245.
Courant, Jamaica, 126, 133, 135, 281,

363, 550, 554.
Courts Martial, Proceedings of, in

Jamaica, 397, 409.
Crampton,Mx., 174.
Crawford, Mr., 562.
Creoles, 260, 420.
Crop, Time of, 31, 64, 65, 417, 418,

432, 450, 486, 497, 516, 518.
Cropper, James, Esq. 298.
Crown Colonies, Clamour of, 93.
, Instructions of Lord

Goderich to the Governors of, 37 —

53, 290.

-, Population of, 380.

Crown Slaves, 208, 210, 523.

Cruel punishments, 10, 11,60,68, 443.

Cruelties in Slave Colonies, 88, 131,
132, 139—142, 146, 147, 149, 150,
152, 154—159, 224, 339, 398, 497,
498, 510—512, 515, 527, 539, 544,
546, 551.

Cuba, 182, 183, 185, 190, 194, 202,
203, 380.

, Slave trade in, 201 — 203.

567

Cunningham, Rev. J. W., 150 — 154.
Curtin, Rev. James, of Antigua, 475,
500, 516.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL

Colonial Church Union, of Jamaica,
239, 240, 279, 281, 362, 396, 399,
542, 550, 554.

Colonial Legislatures : See Legislatures.

Columbia, 563.

Colville, Andrevi^, Esq., 191 — 195.

Combermere, Lord, 172.

Commons : See House of Commons.

Compensation to Slave Owners, 412.

, Claims for, 85, 86.

Decrease of Slaves, 23, 24, 146, 150,
154, 201, 202,434, 452, 487.

Befell, Mr., 111.

Delegates from Jamaica, 241.

De Leon, Mr., of Jamaica, 215.

Dtmerara, 20, 93, 141, 184, 189,
190, 196, 220, 250, 257, 259—261,
372, 374, 375.

, Insurrection in, in 1823,

372.

, Progress of population in,

250.

Denman, Sir T., 72, 94.

Dignum, Mr. A. G., 440, 475, 519 —
521.

Dominica, 94, 222, 256, 258, 260.

, Progress of population in,

256.

Douglas, Mr. Keith, M. P., 134, 196.

Drivers, Condition of, 328, 434, 503,

515.
Duncan, Rev. P., Missionary, 275,276,

315, 352—364, 476, 543—548.
Duncome, Mr., 219.
Dungeons, for Slaves, in Antigua, 516.
D' Urban, Sir B., 124, 220.

Edwards, xMr. Bryan, 177.

Elliot, Captain, 463.

Ellis, Mr., 147,

Emancipated Slaves, 373, 390, 391,

415, 423, 428, 431, 438, 523.
Emancipation, Compulsory, 89.
, Dangers of, 335, 432,

486, 495, 518, 532.

, Desire of the Negroes

for, 344, 378, 480, 558.

, Fitness of the Negroes

for, 335, 341, 374, 377, 378, 392,
404, 413, 454, 455, 458, 459, 560.
Gradual, 84— 86, 125,

127,146, 377, 411, 503,516.

— , Immediate, 86, 125,

127, 146, 164, 356, 361, 377, 392,
471, 532.

568

INDEX TO ANTl-SJ.AVKRY IIKI'ORTKR, VOL. V,

Emancipation, Motion for, in 1823, 83.
, Precautions in regard

to, 348, 356, 361.
English Lahourem compared mith Nc-

giv Slaves, 336, 409, 418, 431, 484.
E.vans, William, l^stj., M. P., 171.
Evidence of Slaves, 18, 63, 117, 441,

446, 477, 487, 492, 494, .517, 526.

Families, Separation of, 13, 64, 89,
446,484,517, 534, 540.

Farquhar, Commodore, 555.

Fui^quhurson, Governor, 83.

Female Labour, 334.

Field Labour of Slaves, 323,340.

Finlaj/son, Mr., of .Jamaica, 214.

Fleming, Vice Admiral the Hon.
Chas., 316, 378—390, 420, 476,
540.

Flogging: See Whip.

Flogging of Females, 6—9, 128, 147,
157, 218, 219, 225, 339, 377, 410,
419, 431, 444, 477, 482, 496, 519,
534, 540—543.

Food, Clolhing, and Maintenance of
Slaves, 18,30, 58,143,193,194, 196,
199, 213, 290, 320, 341, 352, 355,
365, 368, 370, 373, 376, 391, 417,
422, 427, 431, 445, 469, 477, 481,
485,502, 514, 558, 559.

Frater, Mr., of Jamaica, 96, 393.

Free Coloured and Black Popvlalion,
53, 55, 65, 126, 222, 229, 230,
231, 232, 321, 34.3, 344, 365, 367,
368, 376, 378, 379, 387, 437, 440,
509, 560, 563.

■ Addresses of, 229—233.

Freedom, Presumption of, 16.

. , Desire of, 328, 329, 335,

354, 367, 392, 393, 401. (See

Emancipation.)
Freeholders, Black, 229.
Free Labour, 5Q, 212, 321, 335, 380,

382, 459, 462, 484.

• Sugar by, 269.

Free '.Lahourcrs in Jamaica, 321, 326,

449.
Free Settlements of Slaves in Surinam,

373.
French Colonics, 27.

Gardener, an insurgent Slave, 527.

Gardner, Mr., Missionary, 399.

Garrison, Mr. W. L., of the United
States, 296.

Georgia, Slavery in, 430.

Goderich, Lord, 4, 15, 17, 53, 58, 59,
61,100, 123, 156, 157, 159, 160,
181, 205, 209, 210, 212, 216, 224,
242, 246, 283, 294, 472, 491.

, Instructions of, to the

Governors of Slave (Jolonies, 37 — 53.
-, Circular Dispatches

of, 283—291.
Gordon,Mv. \l., 127.
Gonlburn, II., Esq., 133.
Grace, Slave, Case of, 17.
Grant, Sir L., 125, 230.
Grenada, 223, 251, 257.
, Progress of Population in,

251.
Grey, Earl, 192.
Grignon, Mr., of Jamaica, 96, 106,

111, 112,401.
Grundi/, Mr., 79.
Guaduloupe, 563.
Guiana, British, 285, 286, 373, 377,

464.
, Order in Council in,

1, 124.
Guignes, M. de, 562.

Halsted, Admiral Sir Lawrence, 379,

475, 499.
Hankci/, W. A. Esq., 317, 411—413.
Harden, Mr., of Jamaica, 214.
11(11/ ti, 385, 390, 422, 433, 522, 534,

562.

• , Negroes of, 386, 522.

, Price of Labour in, 433.

, Sugar cultivation in, 385, 386,

522.
JIai/tian. Population, increase of, 385.
llibbert. Ceo., Esq., 186.
Uihhert, Uobt , Esq., 365, 424, 558.
Hilton, Kilty, of Jamaica, 71, 481, 545.
Hinchcliffc, Mr. II. J., 474, 481.
Hodgson, A., Esq., 241.
Ilolbcrton, llcv. Mr., of Anligua, 367.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL. V.

569

HoUdai/s, Slave, 60, 98—101, 124,
246, 320, 435, 454.

Honduras, 221, 500.

House of Commons, Committee of, on
West India distress, 177—204.

, Report of Slavery

Committee of, 313 — 472.

House o/" iorffe, Appointment of Com-
mittee on Slavery by, 37, 75, 135,
144, 150, 160,164, 168, 172.

, Report of Slavery

Committee of, 473—564.

Howard de Walden, Lord, 475, 516.

Howick, Viscount, 36, 85, 90, 115,
127, 209,293, 471.

Huggins, Mr., of Nevis, 407, 410.

Hnme, Jos., Esq., M.P., 117, 127.

Husbandry, implements of, in Slave
Colonies, 19.

Huskisson, Rt. Hon. W., 58, 62, 118,
129, 334.

Indigo, cultivation of, 202.

Innes, John, Esq., of Demerara, 196.

Insurrections, Slave, 91 — 94, 105,
124, 131, 161, 166, 220, 233, 234,
242, 351, 372, 392, 406, 482.

, pretended, 81, 82, 94.

Irvi7ig, Mr., M.P., 15, 45, 53.

Ivimey, Rev. Joseph, 168, 175.

Jackson, Mr., Custos of Port Royal,
156—159, 224—228, 563.

Jackson, Mrs., 157, 225.

Jackson, Mr. C, 158,224.

Jails, Allowance of Food in, 69.

Jails and Workhouses,10, 69, 326, 388,
392, 458.

Jamaica, 20, 21, 23, 53, 94, 97, 129,
134, 189, 193, 199, 214, 218, 224,
229, 242, 251, 257, 273, 334, 351,
378,389,461, 534.

, Amount of Coloured Popu-
lation in, 98.

, Amount of White Population

in, 97.

, Bishop of, 220, 273, 456,

461, 517, 563.

Jamaica, Black Freeholders of King-
ston, 229.

, Delegates from, 241.

-, Destruction of Chapels in.

135, 148.

, Disloyal Language in, 388,

392.

, Insurrection in, 81 — 112,

123, 124, 129, 130, 134, 161, 166,
242, 360, 385, 392, 397, 400, 406,
439, 441, 478, 479, 517, 520,

-, Jails and Workhouses of, 10,

67, 101, 229,360.
, Legislation of, 57, 63, 155,

156, 222, 525, 531.
, New Slave Code (19th Feb.

1831), 57—76, 320, 490, 525.

-, Parochial Resolutions of, 96

—98, 132.

, Police of, 326.

, Planters, 72.

, Progress of Population in,

251, 334.
, Public Meetings in 1831, 95

—106, 132.
, Religious Persecution in, 31,

74, 76, 77, 93, 96, 106—108, 129

—132, 148,239,395.

■ , Royal Gazette, 132.

-, State of the White Society of,

349,

, Sugar Trade of, 177— 204.

Jamaica Assembly, 20, 53, 54, 55, 61,

75, 99, 100, 115—118, 128, 129,

173, 177, 179, 233, 241, 245, 260,

280, 339, 477.

Reports of, 1 77,

178,179.
James, Catherine, a Slave, 276.
James, Eleanor, a Slave, 452.
Jereniie, John, Esq., 11, 81, 94, 171

183, 203.
Jordan, Mr., of Jamaica, 242.

Keane, Maj.-Gen. Sir J., 475, 494.
Knibb, Rev. W., Missionary, 107,

131, 214, 216, 240, 275, 282, 316,

392,411,476,549,557.

Lidniur, Slave, 140, 142, 323, 325,

570

INDEX TO ANTX-SJLAVEllY JlErORTEll, VOL. V.

332, 333, 337, 368, 432, 435, 445.

464,460,517,559.
Labour, Slave, fruit of, 46.
, duration of, 29, 49, 64,

88,333, 337, 368, 371, 417, 424,

469, 512, 517, 523,559.
Lawson, Col., 101, 110, 111, 112,

394.

Leeward Islands, 20.

Ijes^lon, Letter of, to the Duke of

kichmond, 470.
Legislation in Slave Colonies, 163,

466, 525.
Legislatures, Colonial, 36, 41, 42, 115,

—120, 127.
Leitli, Sir James, 92.
Libertinism in Slave Colonies, 76 — 80,

349, 350, 403, 410, 427, 444, 454,

482, 487, 499, 537, 559.
London Missionary Society, 411.
Long, Mr., of Jamaica, 177.
Ijongmore, Mr. Geo., 103.
Lords: See House of Lords.
Louisiana, 437.
Loving, Mr. Henry, of Antigua, 310,

367—370.
Lushington, Dr., M. P., 154—162.
Lmjken, Mr., 527.
Lynch, Mr., of Jamaica, 54, 55, 239.

Macaulay, Z., Esq., 146, 377.
Macdonell, Mr. Alex., 181, 182, 188,

190, 191, 203.
Macdonald, Mr., of Trelawney, 101.

102, 105, 243.
Macdonald, Col. Alex., 475, 499.
Macgregor, John, Esq., 461.
Mackenzie, Consul, 385.
Macqueen, Mr. J., 189, 280, 339.
Magistrates, Special, 111.

Stipendiary, 425, 446.

Mrnn^cnawce of Slaves, 18, 143. (See

Food.)
Malcolm, James, a Slave, 275.
Maltreatment of Slaves, punishments

for, 66.
Wlanchester, Duke of, 474, 476—481.
Mandersov, Mr., of Jamaica, 53, 394,

439.

Manumission, (Compulsory), 13, 53,

351, 356, 378, 381, 534.
Manumissions, 13, 65, 70, 196, 258,

266, 381, 382, 389,483,541.
Maroons, 21, 25, 68, 191, 192, 199

—201, 334, 338, 420, 495, 536, 563.
Marriage of Slaves, 12, 58, 64, 339,

343, 364, 367, 375, 428, 461, 477,

483,501, 502, 517, 542.
Marriott, Jo.seph, a Slave, 265.
Marry at, Mr., 179.
Martinique, 17, 27, 28, 183.
Mauritius, 5, 9—11, 20, 141, 189,

209, 210, 212.

, 197, 256, 257, 462.

, Instruments of Punishment

in, 9, 10.

, Progress of Population in,

256.
Mead, Eleanor, a Slave, 96.
-MecZicaZ attendance on Slaves, 32, 497.
Mexico, Sugar Culture in, 563.
Mier, W., Esq,, 317, 430.
Miller, Mr., of Jamaica, 395, 403.
Missionaries, 78, 106, 130, 135, 173,

234, 235, 346, 351, 358, 359, 374,

387, 425, 430, 456, 500, 531, 536,

546.
Persecution of, 75, 148,

149, 412.

— • Baptist, Protest of, 235.

(See Baptist, Moravian, Scottish, Wes-

leyan.)
Missionary Chapels, destruction of,

277, 364, 395, 399, 404, 520.
Montego Buy, 107, 392.
Montserrat, 222, 252, 257.
■ ■ — , Progress of Population in,

252.
Moravian Missionaries, 351, 367, 374,

377, 500, 502.
Morgan, Rev. Thomas, 316, 391, 476,

548.
Mortality: See Population.
Moss, Ben, a Slave of Bahamas, 219.
Mosses, of Bahamas, Case of the, 140.
Murray, Sir Geo., 11, 118, 129, 208.
Mwray, Governor, 375.
.Myal men, (Negro Sorcerers) 62, 74.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL. V.

571

Negj'o- English, Dialect of, 374.

Negroes, Capacity of, 342, 345, 371,
378,391,425,433,444.

, Character of, 341, 342, 345,

347, 369, 372, 374, 420, 421, 430,
433, 435, 438, 444, 446, 453, 464,
495, 496, 498,516, 545, 548.

, Education of, 339, 341, 366.

(See Religious Instructioii.)

Industry of, 324, 326—328,

331,332, 335,341, 352,355,365,

368, 372, 373, 391, 410, 419, 423,

425. (See Slaves.)

Prize, 50.

Nevis, 252, 257.

Progress of Population in, 252.

New Providence, 232.

New York, Abolition of Slavery in,

390, 414, 415.
Noel, Hon. and Rev. B., 172, 173,
North American Review, 115.

Obeah, practice of, 61, 62, 63, 71, 74.
O'Connell, D., Esq., M.P., 164— 168.
Ogden, Jas.de Peyster, Esq., 317, 414.
Order in Council of Nov. 2, 1831,

1—53, 87, 112, 114, 134, 285, 363.
of 1824, 1830, 38—

40, 44.
Overseers, 538.

Palmer, Br., 158, 224,227.

Palmer, Mr. N., 346.

Parliamentart/ Candidates, Recom-
mendations for choice of, 162.

Parliamentary Proceedings on Slavery,
83, 113—134.

Parry, Archdeacon, 367.

Paterson, Mr., Acting Governor of
Grenada, 8.

Paul, Rev. N., 316, 390.

Pauperism, 65, 418, 515, 563.

Pennefather, Major, 111.

Peyango, General, a black man, 384.

PhiUpotts, Thomas, Esq., 195.

Pike, Mr. J. F., 318, 437.

Plantain walks, 337.

Planters of Jamaica, 528. (SeeJama/ca.)

Planters, West Indian, distress of,

177—204.
Police, Colonial, 340, 347, 348, 425,

452.
Pope, Mr. Archdeacon of Jamaica, 311.
Population, (Slave) Decrease of, 25,

111, 141, 150, 154, 172, 181, 189,

191, 193, 196, 197, 199, 200, 202,

257, 259, 261, 263, 334, 434, 487,

493, 536, 560, 562.
Increase of, 141, 192,

197, 200, 263, 334, 430, 487.

Progress of, (Tabular

Statement,) 249, 462, 560.

Return of, 249, 258, 260.

Respective Numbers of

Male and Female, 258.
Portugal, Slave Ordinances of, 28.
Pownall, H., Esq., 174.
Proclamation in Jamaica, 109, 110.
Property, Slave's right of: See Slaves.
Protection, Councils of, 67, 156 — 159,

224.

Protectors of Slaves, 1 — 5, 18, 33, 47,
440—442.

Reports, 9, 51,

440, 442, 495, 520.
Provision grounds, Cultivation of, 19,

20, 22, 24, 26, 29, 64, 65, 327, 331,

337, 341, 347, 353, 365, 417, 431,

488, 502, 518.

Payment of rent

for, 328.
Punishment of Slaves, 6, 7, 10, 11,

61, 62, 67, 72, 73, 146, 156, 320,

418, 448, 458, 463, 464, 482, 510,

536, 540, 558, 559.

Capital, 71, 397,

479.

11, 51, 60,
497.

— forRebellion,71,72
-— Instruments of,9 —
i, 157, 226, 443, 481,

Regulation of, 6, 7.
Records of, 7.

Rae, Mr. Wm., 364.
Raeburn, Mr. T., 556.
Raffles, Sir T. S., 562.
Rebellion : See Insurrection,

572

INDEX TO ANTI-SL/VVERY HEPORTKK, VOL. V

Record, Anti-Slavery, 136.

Registration of Slaves,1 6, 91, 197, 249.

Religious Instruction of Slaves, 30 —
32, 52, 64, 78, 79, 128, 129, 147,
167, 220, 271—273, 338, 342, 345,
348, 354, 357, 366, 367, 369, 371,
376, 381, 391, 402, 426, 432, 444,
456, 461, 500, 502,531.

Religious Persecution, 73, 129 — 132,
134, 135, 148, 161, 167, 173, 239,
240, 271, 272, 274, 322, 361, 364,
392, 404, 537, 543, 551, 552, 557.

Report of Commons' Committee, 313
—472.

■ of Lords'Committee, 473 — 564.

Resolutions, Parochial, 96, 123, 545.

Parliamentary, (1823,) 93,

116, 117,126,127, 128.

Rose, Sir Geo., 559.

Ross, Sir P., 209, 293.

Rowley, Vice Admiral Sir C, 442.

Roxburgh, Dr., 562.

Rum, distillation of, 48.

Runaway Slaves, 66, 68, 82.

SandonfLovd, 133, 176.
Scarlett, Sir William, 71.
Schools/or Negroes, 339, 487, 499.

(See Religious Instruction.)
Scotch Labourer Compared with Negro

Slave, 323, 332.
Scotland, Kirk of, in Jamaica, 273, 349.
Scott, Robert, Esq., 317, 417—422.
Scottish Missionaries, 349,435.
Seqford, Lord, 147, 172,475, 489,524.
Seaforth, Lord, 163.
Sectarians, 78, 79, 107, 134.
Separation of Families, 1 3, 64, 89, 446,

484, 517, 534, 540.
Shand,W., Esq., 317, 431—436, 475,

496.
Sharp, Mr. E. 475,517.
Sharp, Samuel (a Negro), 108.
Shipman, Rev, John, 317,430.
Sierra Leone, 63, 209.
Signal, the, (a Periodical work), 133.
Simpson, James, Esq., of Jamaica, 317,

422, 429—522.
Slave Children, Labour of, 49.

Slave Colonies, Immoralities in, 273,

343, 350,410.

Evidence : See Evidence.

Labour : See Labour.

Slavery, Analysis of the Reports of the

Parliamentary Committees on, 313

—564.
Demoralizing and hardening

Effects of, 76, 343, 354, 430, 455.

, Effects of, in Jamaica,76 — 80.

Inconsistent with Christianity,

363, 412,471.
, Moral Guilt of, 411—413.

-, Mitigation of, 146, 147, 164,

169.

16.

-, Presumptions of Freedom or,

Slaves, Advance of Knowledge among,
339. (See Religious Instruction.)

, Aged and infirm, 65, 431/432,

481.

Allowance of Time to, 329, 337,

341, 381, 391, 417. (See Holidays.)

, Cattle belonging to, 328, 341.

• , Comforts of, 428, 432, 454,499.

, Complaints of, 11, 452, 495,

521, 537.

, Cost of, 196, 201.

, Danger of withholding Free-
dom from, 318.

, Decrease of: (See Decrease.)

, Dress of, 327, 339, 341, 371,

439.

-, Enfranchisement of, 211.
-, Evidence of: See Evidence.

; Female, Punishment of, 50, 51.

, Food and Maintenance of : See

Food.

, Furniture of, 339, 449.

-, Happiness of, 268, 499—501.

, Houses of, 339.

■ , Instruction of, 271, 321, 370,

371, 375, 411, 421, 426, 440, 452,

455. (See Religious Itistruction,)

, Labour of: See Labour.

, Marriage of: See Marriage.

, Medical attendance on, 32,

497.
, Payment of Wages to, 286.

INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVEllY REPORTER, VOL, V.

573

Slaves, Property in, 17,89, 164.
Property of, 13, 59, 418, 426,

482, 483, 489, 490, 519, 522, 544.
, Protection of, 67, 156—159,

224, 339, 378.

Protectors of, 1—5, 18, 33, 47,

440, 442.
, Rights of Property of, 13, 59,

65, 418, 426, 483, 489, 490, 519,
.526,544.
, Runaway, 66, 68, 82.

, Slaughter of, 91, 92.

, Unlawful Assembliesof, 70, 72.

, Wages of, 322, 383, 429.

Slave Trade, 182.

— — Abolition of, 125, 126,

163, 192, 201.
Smith, Wm., Esq., 146, 162.

, Missionary, 93, 129, 359, 375.

Smyth, Sir James C, 219, 232.
Spain, Slave Ordinances of, 28.
Spanish Slave Code, 381, 382, 390.
Spence (a Slave), 276.
Staunton, Sir George, 562.
St. Christopher, 141, 223, 252, 257,
258.

, Progress of Population

in, 253.
St. Domingo -. See Hayti.
Stennet {a. Slave), 281.
Stennet, Samuel, a Negro, 556.
Stephen, Jas., Esq., 22, 28, 137, 176.
Stephen, Geo., Esq., 172, 176.
Stewart, Mr., author of Past and Pre-
sent State of Jamaica, 25.
Stewart, General, 81.
Stewart, Hon. Jas., 26.
St. Lucia, 20, 26, 51, 81, 85, 125,
128, 184, 253, 257, 285, 286.

Pretended Insurrection in, 8 1

—83,

Progress of Population in, 253.

Stockman, Mr., a Catechist of Jamaica,

346.
S^ocfo, use of, 9, 51, 157, 226,481,497.
Stowell, Lord, 17.
Stuart, Capt. Charles, 298.
Sturge, Mr. T., 175.

St. Vincent, 223, 254, 257.

J Progress of Population

in, 254.
Suffield, Lord, 137, 138, 160.
Sugar Bounty, 186, 194.
Sugar Colonies, 263.

, Progress of Population

in, 249—264.
Sugar Cultivation, Effects of, 180, 184.,
185, 198.

, East India, 204, 562.

Sugar, Cultivation of, 180, 184, 195,
347, 380, 562.

, Cultivation of, in Hayti, 522.

Sugar Duties, 113 — 134.

, Debate on, 113 — 134.

Sugar, Free Labour, 269, 380, 382,

383.
Sugar Trade, 177—204.
Suicide of Slaves, A97.
Sunday, Desecration of, 78, 220.
Sunday Labour, 5, 22, 26, 31, 64, 65,
90, 194, 332, 341, 353, 355, 368,
370, 391, 486,513, 519.
Sunday Markets, 5, 26, 39, 64, 291,
341, 355, 368, 417, 426, 446, 477,
484, 486, 503, 515, 526.
Sunday Schools for Slaves, 32, 348,
352, 376, 559. See Religious In-
struction.
Surinam, Slavery in, 372, 377.
Sutherland, Robert, Esq., 316, 390.
Swiney, Samuel (a Negro), 131, 214,
216, 276, 404.

Tariff, Spanish Slave, 389.

Taro, Marquis del, 383.

Task Work, 322, 325, 381, 419, 432,

437, 467, 468, 519, 523.
Taylor, Simon, Esq., 199.
, William, Esq., 315, 319,422,

423, 447, 476, 540—543.
Thomas, Wm., 475.
Thorp, Rev. John, 316, 370—372,

476, 559.
Thorrowgood, Mr. S., 175.
Tobacco, Cultivation of, in Hayti, 523.
Tobago, 196, 197, 222, 254, 257.

, Progress of Population in,254

4 F

574 INDEX TO ANTI-SLAVERY REPORTER, VOL. V.

Toleration Act, 147.
Tortola, 125, 189, 255, 257.

— , Progress of Population in

255.

Trelawny, Parochial Resolutions of,
96.

Tremayne, Rev. F., 358.

Trew, Rev. J. M., 75, 371, 427, 457.

Trinidad, 94, 124,128,129, 141, 184,

189, 190, 212, 230, 255, 257, 285,

378, 381, 389, 390, 563.

, Constitution of, 205.

■ , Order in Council for, of

1824, 116.

-, Progress of Population in.

255.

United States, 56, 133, 167, 202, 264,
300, 360.

Anti-Slavery Societies

in, 300.

, Slave Population of, 4 1 5.

, Slavery in,133,166, 202,

203, 264, 298, 390.

Vagrancy, 331.
Virgin Islands, 223.

Wages, Stimulus of, compared with
that of the Whip, 323, 324, 347,354,
423, 445, 450.

Walker, James (a Slave), 263.

Watchman, Jamaica Newspaper, 54,
126, 134, 240, 339,532.

, Trial of the Editor

of, 242.

Wulkins, Joseph (a Free Black School-
master), 221.

Watkis, Mr. Price, of Jamaica, 53, 238.

Watson, Wm., Esq., 437.

Wedderhurn, Mr., 192.

Wesleyan Missionaries, Protest of the,

236, 342, 343, 346, 348, 351, 358,

367, 500, 502.
Leaders, Negro, 346.

West India Distress, Report of Com-
mittee on, 177 — 204.

, Causes of, 177 — 204.

West Indian Committee, 59, 156, 188,
532.

Body, 162, 166,171,188.

Consignees, 185, 186, 198.

West Indians, and West India Agents,

3, 15,17,113, 122.
, Attempt of, to explain the

Decrease of the Slave Population,

259.

West Indies, Intelligence from, 229.

Whip, Driving, Prohibition of, 6, 7,

,Use of, 6, Q7, 68, 88, 89,156, 323,

324, 329, 380, 424, 429, 430, 435,
439, 442, 443, 445, 454, 482, 485,
488, 519, 536, 540, 546, 549, 559.

White, Betsey (a Slave), 511, 513.

Whitehorn, Mr., Baptist Missionary,
394.

Whitehouse, Rev, W., Missionary, 107.

Whitrnore, W. W., Esq., 187.

Wilherforce, Wm., Esq., 91, 92, 147,
163".

Wilberforce Settlement, Upper Cana-
da, 391.

Wildgoos, Mr., of Bahamas, 219.

Wildman, J. B., Esq., 221, 318, 346»
413,444—460.

, Privileges of his Slaves, 329.

Williams, Col., 528.

Williams, Capt. C. H. 317, 406—410.

Williams, Thomas, Esq., 523.

Williams, Henry (a Negro), 130, 135,
275, 361,527, 545.

, Catherine, 399.

Winkels, Emancipated Slaves in Ber-
bice, 523.

Wolsey, Mr. E. J., 475, 522.

Workhouses for Slaves, 60, 65, 458.

Wray, Rev. Mr., 523.

Young, Colonel, Protector of Slaves,

259.
, Rev. Robe rt, 31

London : S. Bagster, Jun., Printer, 14, Bartholomew Close.

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